A Waterfall Wish, Motorcyclist's Death and Vigil for Jordan Family: Pick of Our Patches

Editor’s Note: Every week we will bring you a sampling of stories from Patch sites in the west metro: Edina, Golden Valley, Hopkins, Maple Grove, Minnetonka, Plymouth, Richfield, Shakopee, St. Louis Park and St. Michael.

(Click on the headline to read the full story.)

A Bloomington business owner gave Maple Grove parents a special gift for their autistic daughter.

Dozens of friends and family showed up to a prayer vigil last week night in Shakopee for a family involved in a deadly crash in Kansas.

A Minnetonka man died in a motorcycle-vehicle accident April 4 in Plymouth. He was wearing his helmet.

Jackie Roehl, English teacher at Edina High School, is among 10 finalists for Minnesota's 2012 Teacher of the Year.

St. Louis Park’s well-traveled varsity coach, Shjon Podein, invited Japanese youth hockey players to the school for the second year in a row.

In "Sundogs," Richfield resident Kay Elliott pays tribute to the six dogs that have passed through her life.

When the Marketplace & Main project is fully online, Hopkins should have about a 600 percent increase in values for its six tax increment financing districts, according to the City Council.

The local coffee shop will serve customers out of a trailer for a few weeks so a new entrance can be built.

The new tenants are a mystery, but they want to add some signs to the former movie theater.

Some parents believe the level of English proficiency required in the test for Chinese and Spanish immersion teachers is impractical, and they're looking to legislators for help.