On Tuesday, October 3, kindergarten students and staff at Longfellow Elementary School were able to successfully tag and send off their first monarch butterfly for its long journey to Mexico. Principal Chris Doolittle worked with Bev Koenig, a retired teacher from Westerville City Schools, and Jeff Bracken, chemistry teacher at Westerville North, to get monarch caterpillars and hydroponically grown milkweed to feed them. The children learned about the life cycle of monarch butterflies, and were able to observe the caterpillar grow for more than a week, and then change into a chrysalis. The youngsters are currently watching for their other two chrysalides to eclose and leave for the warmer climate down south, as it is too cold in Ohio for them to survive.