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Top Videos of 2010

Our picks for the Top 5 Videos from the year.

 

Continuing with our Best of Brookfield year in review, we have the Top 5 Videos from 2010. Without further ado…

Our favorite video from the year includes fast-paced action, stylish vehicles, four-foot-tall drivers and… a Hulk? The annual Big Wheel 500 at Town Hall brought out the tiny racers, ages three to six, for a few laps around the municipal parking lot racetrack. All the racers were a pleasure to watch, but the young Hulk getting himself pumped up at 1:10 puts this video over the top.

The next two videos share something in common (besides the videographer): demolition. The first is the destruction of the dilapidated house on Federal Road, just north of Four Corners. The condemned house was brought down in April and Brookfield Patch was on scene for the most ground-shaking parts of the destruction. The property, situated between Italiano's and Beauty Nails, has become a vacant grass-lot since April, awaiting the development of a town center.

The second deconstruction was far less traumatic for the structure: taking down the defunct windmill at Happy Landing. Workers from Hollandia Nurseries in Bethel and Brookfielder Russell DeGrazia gently lowered the historic blades and tail in October, with plans to refurbish and restore it to working order. On a pristine autumn morning, the work was captured in a stop-motion slideshow, as the crews carefully took down the top half of the structure over the course of an hour.

This June, with the summer parade season in full swing, Patch took a look at the tradition of drum corps in the area, including the loss of Brookfield's own in 1977. Reporter Wendy Mitchell compiled some great footage of drums corps performing in Brookfield and surrounding towns this summer and even found some special footage of a couple of Brookfield seniors will extraordinary talent.

In July, at Bethel's PT Barnum Festival, 84-year-old Drew Grouse and 78-year-old Bobbie Thumann performed for the crowds, with Thumann executing a fantastic baton twirling routine while Grouse and others played "Grand Old Flag," all caught on tape.

And finally, but certainly not least, is film of Brookfielders cutting loose on National Dance Day on July 31. Organized by Joni Lowe, owner of Positive Energy Dance for Women in Brookfield, and inspired by the TV show So You Think You Can Dance, throngs of Brookfield residents showed up to shake their stuff and learn a few new moves in the process.

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Over the course of the last nine months, we here at Brookfield Patch have produced over 200 original videos, ranging from fun snippets (like kids almost crashing into trees on a zip-line) to full video stories (like a potential shortage looming at Fairfield County's blood banks) to game highlights and school plays. As 2011 approaches, be sure to come back regularly to see all the great happenings in town captured in real time and recorded here on Brookfield Patch.

About this column: Brookfield's top stories, photos, games and more. Our 2010 Year in Review.
Did we miss your favorite video from 2010? Tell us in the comments.

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