Year in Review: May

As 2011 comes to a close, Brookfield Patch is looking back at the year's biggest local stories and conversation starters, month by month. Here’s a recap from May:

• See all Brookfield Patch Year in Review stories

"Drum roll, please," an elections supervisor said. It was a Saturday afternoon and the Waukesha County Board of Canvassers had finished its hand recount of Brookfield's votes in the Prosser-Kloppenburg race. The result: Prosser picked up three votes; Kloppenburg picked up one.

It was a milestone for tabulators because Brookfield's 14,000 votes faced enormous scrutiny after the county clerk failed to include them in her election night total. With Brookfield's votes counted, the winner changed to Prosser, by about 7,000 votes out of 1.5 million cast statewide. Waukesha County was the last county to report its results, after getting a time extension for its meticulous review overseen by a circuit judge.

to counting where security tags had failed. But in the end she chose not to challenge the historic statewide recount that .

After a quarter-century teaching orchestra at , Anne Marie Peterson directed her final concert in May before retirement.

About 95 alumni surprised Peterson — or "Miss P" as her students affectionately call her, including about 15 to 20 who came on stage to join the orchestra for a  

About 200 residents in the City and Town of Brookfield lost a renewed battle to detach from the Waukesha School District and join the Elmbrook district. The School District Boundary Appeal Board cited economics and the harm to the Waukesha School District, which could lose about $61 million in equalized property tax base.

Eight Brookfield veterans were among more than 100 who traveled to Washington DC-area memorials on a Stars and Stripes Honor Flight in May. Patch captured the welcome home at the airport through and .

Cheers and tears were abundant as a crowd greeted veterans who included Brookfield residents George Collura and Elmer Meyers. Meyers got to travel with his son, George Meyers, of Oconomowoc, who called the trip an incredible experience. Collura's family greeted him with hugs.

in Brookfield hosted donations for the Honor Flight.

Brookfield Patch only had a little time to bop into the Bebop and Barbecue before heading to the airport for the .

But Patch picked up some and from the classy, jazzy event, the fourth annual fundraiser held in the gymnasium at Brookfield Central High School. Outside the gym, a raffle was held and attendees could dine on Kansas City Style BBQ.

After teaching second graders for 42 years and creating friendships between children and elders, Hillside Elementary teacher Sherry Power retired at year-end. Power also started "Forever Friends," a program that pairs Hillside students with residents from St. John’s on the Lake Retirement Community.

"The lives of almost a 1,000 children have been touched by her — and many still keep in contact with her," Hillside Principal Julie Kremer said. "That’s really quite extraordinary."

Brookfield Academy's 2011 graduating class earned 27 high honor diploma recipients and 14 honor diplomas. Brookfield Patch shot a large photo gallery as part of a weeklong community "tour."

Five months after Holly Christina Stahl passed away in a car accident, her family awarded the first student scholarship from a foundation in Holly's name. , the award, established with the Elmbrook Education Foundation, was presented at Brookfield Central High's senior night.

Four months after being designated a "Bird City," the city held a celebration of International Migratory Bird Day. Despite at-times heavy rain, girl scouts handed out free apples, cookies and lemonade, participants went on a bird walk through part of the Nature Center's 17-acre property and made bird feeders (pine cones spread with peanut butter rolled in wild bird seed). .