Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
From Tayside to Texas Monifieth caterpillar inspires family 5,000 miles away
A CRAFTY project started in Monifieth at the height of lockdown has inspired a family almost 5,000 miles away to recreate its success.
The town’s lockdown caterpillar was started in May by Joanne Lindsay and her daughters Megan and Olivia.
It has now received international attention, with a family in Houston, Texas, inspired to start their own caterpillar after seeing the Monifieth project online.
Lyn McWilliam, herself originally from Monifieth, said her 12-yearold daughter Nicole is the brains behind the Texas caterpillar.
She said: “We saw the caterpillar on the Our Monifieth Facebook page.
“Nicole thought it was a great thing to do to bring the community together, so she suggested we do it here.
“Myself, my husband Ian, and my girls Alex and Nicole are all from Monifieth. We moved here for Ian’s job in 2012. Monifieth is still our home and always will be.
“We usually travel home each year but haven’t been able to this year so we thought we would try and bring a little bit of Monifieth to us if we couldn’t get there.
“We only posted on our community Facebook page about the caterpillar on Sunday so we are hoping people will bring stones and leave them. Everyone seemed really excited about it.
“Things are getting worse here in Texas with Covid-19, so Nicole thought it might give kids something to do.”
The Monifieth caterpillar was a huge hit and reached almost 2,000 stones.
Joanne said when she saw the post about the Houston caterpillar she was gobsmacked.
She said: “I couldn’t believe it. I’ve not had a chance to tell the girls yet. They will be absolutely delighted.
“The fact that it’s been started over in Texas is just amazing.
“We didn’t ever imagine it would have the impact that it did and never thought it would lead to another one being created so far away.”