Principal Profile
Mrs. Melissa Whelan Wisk
Education
Graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana 1994
Graduated with a Master of Arts in Educational Administration, Curriculum Planning, and Supervision, Georgian Court University, 2001
Currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Educational Administration from Seton Hall University
Work Experience
Teacher of History and Religion at the Academy of the Sacred Heart, Hoboken; Saint Mary High School, South Amboy; and Saint John Vianney High School, Holmdel
Dean of Students at Saint John Vianney High School, Holmdel 2000-2003
Principal, Our Lady of Perpetual Help School 2003-2006
Principal, Mother Teresa Regional School 2006-present
A Good Sport
John and I made a deal. If the Eagles beat the Giants then I had to buy ice cream but if the Giants won then John would wear a Giants jersey. Next time they play I will have to wear a Eagles Jersey and buy ice cream if the Eagles win.
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In gratitude for John being such a good sport. I had to buy the kindergarten ice cream when the Giants lost to the Eagles.
Road Trip Blog
I couldn’t resist. Perhaps it was simply being in the Midwest, maybe the 15 hour trip from South Carolina to Michigan, perhaps it was the new car with under 10,000 miles but the lure of the open road won out and I am on another road trip.
I grew up watching the “Little House on the Prairie” TV series and read all the books. I even owned a dress like Laura, the red calico print with bonnet and all. I loved to dream of running down that prairie hill, braids flying behind me and the wide open spaces. I have seen the prairie several times on my previous travels and although it can become monotonous after hours in the car, I never tire of the beauty of the farmland. The vast openness of the sky and the glow of the sun across the fields and on the barns. It truly is God’s country and I love enjoying the beauty of it.
While Grace is at camp at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, (all you girls 5-8th grade should consider going) I have decided to drive the historic Laura Ingalls Wilder Highway. I am so excited to visit the places of Laura’s childhood. You may recall my quick stop in Walnut Grove a few years back, many of you way have wondered where I was but your moms knew. First graders who have listened to the stories read by Miss Reddan should know where I am.
My first stop was Pepin Wisconsin. I arrived there at around 10 pm and the rain stopped just long enough for me to set up my tent at Lake Pepin Campground. The night was hot and humid but not bad until I was woken at 4:30 am by a severe lightning and thunder storm which forced me into the car for the remainder of the night. (Ah, the joys of camping). I wondered what the early pioneer did for shelter on a night like this. In the morning I was able to visit the museum and visitor’s center. There were several artifacts from the pioneer days as well as some of Laura’s own items. From there I traveled to the little house in the big woods. It is not Laura’s original home but it is on the land that her family owned. The well that her Pa dug is still there and the historical society built a replica. Boys and girls take a look at the pictures I posted and let me know what is different from Laura’s description in the book. I bought the “Little House in the Big Woods” on CD so I could listen as I drove and there are a few differences with the replica. Email me your answer for a prize.
I left Pepin and headed into Minnesota. Crossing the Mississippi River was amazing as it is quite wide this far north and has several islands across it. I traveled south to Spring Valley, Minnesota. You will not read about this place in Laura’s younger years. She lived in this town with Almanzo and her daughter Rose for two years. Almanzo’s family lived here and it was form here that he went to South Dakota where he would meet Laura. The museum here had great and interesting items. I was not able to take pictures but I have to tell you about a few of the most interesting. The first were the pictures of the family, the house that the Wilders lived in and the original barn which stands today. The second was the egg incubator that was warmed with kerosene. I think the tour guide was surprised that I knew what it was used for as I excitedly told him about the chicks we hatch at school. It was so neat to see and I wished that we could borrow it for our next chick project. The final item was a permanent hair machine that was a series of wires with a clip on the end so women could give themselves a permanent with the electricity. Most ended up with burned hair or a burned head so it wasn’t used that long. I was amazed at the amount of artifacts the museum had and how many were donated by local people. Something to think about when you go to throw out old items. I have been listening to LIttle House in the Big Woods and bought LIttle House on the Prairie to listen too as well.
The next stop was Burr Oak, Iowa. Again Laura did not write about the family’s two years here. The youngest of the Ingalls, Grace was born here. The family lived in the Masters Hotel and worked with another family for a short time there. The original hotel still stands and has been turned into a museum. Across the street is a bank that has been converted to a visitors center and gift shop. The bank was robbed back in the late nineteenth century and you can still see the vaults today where the money was kept. Burr Oak was interesting as I was on tour with another Laura buff who was traveling around to the sites and the tour guide and he were having some great conversations about facts that I didn’t know about Laura. From Burr Oak, I traveled to Walnut Grove, Minnesota choosing to follow the historic highway rather than the interstate. The scenery was lovely and I passed through Mankota and Sleepy Eye which some may remember from the TV series.
Tomorrow I will be on the banks of plum creek hoping for cooler weather. As for tonight the tent is set up in Plum Creek Campground on the shores of Lake Laura.
Day 2
Well the cooler weather did not arrive but a breeze did. I was woken by the moon last night shining so bright into the tent that I thought a light was on. When I went to put the computer away in the car, I couldn’t see the car through the dark just an hour earlier but as the moon rose in the sky the area became so bright I could see the car.
In the morning I headed to see a sod house that a farmer had built on his farm. The gentleman wanted to preserve the pioneer part of history so he built a sodhouse on his property and also developed the land with native prairie grass and flowers. It was so neat to see the type of sod house that Laura would have lived in. There was also an informational binder about the different types of sod houses used by the pioneers and pictures of actual homes photographed with the families. It was nice to chat with the farmer’s wife and the farm had actually been featured on the history channel.
I then headed back to Walnut Grove to visit the site of Laura’s dugout home and where Pa would have built their house. The former site is on another farm and the family there also built up the area to restore it to how it would have looked at the time of Laura. They had signs to indicate the rock at Plum Creek that she describes in her books. There was also the site of the dugout which is now just a depression in the ground. I then traveled back into town to see the museum there which has a house with items that would have been used during the time of Laura. The bell which Pa bought with the $3 he would have used for his new boots still rings in a church in the town.
From Walnut Grove, I headed west to DeSmet, South Dakota. The Ingalls family settled there last and it was there that Ma and Pa Ingalls lived out their lives. Their graves and the graves of Mary, Carrie and Grace are also there. It was here that Laura met Almanzo and worked as a teacher. The Ingalls homestead site is a great hands on exhibit. I was able to make a corn crib doll, drive a wagon with mules, and see the house as Pa would have built it and the family lived in it. There was also a one room school house like the one that the Ingalls children attended and like Laura would have taught in on the Homestead site. Five of the cottonwood trees that Pa planted are still on the 160 acres that he homesteaded. The museum has a copy of the proving papers that show that Pa had lived on the 160 acres for five years and had built a shanty, a barn and dug a well.
From the homestead I headed into town where there was a museum as well that had the schoolhouse that Laura and Carrie attended in addition to the surveyor’s house that they first lived in when the family arrived in DeSmet and Pa worked for the railroad. You are able to see the house that Pa built for Ma in town and where they lived until their deaths. I was also able to see where Laura and Almanzo first lived when they were married. Laura spent many years in DeSmet and many of the Little House Books are based on her experiences here.
It was so neat to see so many places Laura described in her books. I really enjoyed my visit here and loved feeling the wind whip across the plains. My hair was matted much like Laura had described hers after playing outside on the prairie. I especially like driving the wagon. I also learned how to make a braided rug so perhaps we can try that in the Living Arts camp this year.
From DeSmet, I decided to start my southward journey to Kansas. I learned that a wagon could travel 16 miles a day (my trip from home to school). I was very happy not to be in a wagon but in my van. The van lost its MTRS magnet in South Dakota when I got the car washed. Someone will find it and will wonder where is MTRS. I guess we will need to add the town on the next ones like so many have suggested. I traveled south along the interstate and witnessed first hand the flooding along the rivers. Can you guess what river I was following now? I will give you a hint that Lewis and Clark explored this river. I was detoured around the flooding as the interstate was closed because there was no way across the river. Sandbags like the highway in parts to protect it from the waters.
I stopped in Omaha, Nebraska. I have been to Omaha several times as a stopping point on our travels. This time I would not be visiting their wildlife preserve though or traveling onto see the Pope in Denver. I was headed to the Little House on the Prairie in Kansas. In Omaha, I stopped at the AAA to get the maps for the states I was now traveling in. I prefer the maps to the GPS especially when trying to figure out how to avoid detours. Plus it is more fun to go off road every once in a while. I do have a habit of that in Kansas. Remember when we saw the largest hairball in Garden City, Kansas.
Day 3
I traveled in the morning through Nebraska and Kansas and arrived at the LIttle House on the Prairie in the afternoon. I listened to "On the Banks of Plum Creek" as I drove and have enjoyed listening to the stories and realizing what I have just seen. It was fun to see the log cabin that Pa built in Indian territory. I crossed the river that Mr. Edwards had crossed with the girls Christmas presents from Santa. The heat was high today. It was 109 in Independence Kansas which is just north of the LIttle House. My visit was quick as the log cabin was not air conditioned. I don’t know how Laura would have worn long sleeves all day long in this heat of the prairie. The sky was beautiful with the large puffy white clouds and the bright blue sky. The log cabins door was so short I had to bend down to move through the door. The site also had a post office that had been used until 1977 and a one room school house that had been used until 1945.
Most of my day had been spent driving and the van needed some TLC. I bought the van on Easter Saturday and it already has over 12,000 miles so it needed a check up and a tune up. Amazingly there was a Toyota dealer in Independence Kansas so I could get the “wagon” checked before moving on to Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri. Here Laura wrote all of the books and lived much of her adult life. I can’t wait to visit this last site.
Day 4
Today I made my way from Springfield, Missouri where I spent the night last night. No more camping after seeing the temperature reach 109. I traveled east to Rocky Ridge Farm where Laura lived with Almanzo and Rose. It was here that Laura wrote all of her books. There are two homes on the property. The first is the Farmhouse that Laura and Almanzo built. The home is in the condition that Laura left it when she died three days after her 90th birthday. The only item replaced was the kitchen linoleum and the stairs had some non slip treads added for visitors. Laura's desk where she wrote the books was there with her pencils and tablets. She wrote the books long hand. She even answered every piece of fan mail personally. Some people have donated her letters to them to the museum. Pa's fiddle is in the museum. It is over 100 years old and is still played once a year by professional fiddler players for the festival. Laura ordered from the Montgomery Ward catalog and her 1956 catalog and her 1957 calendar were still in the house.
Also on the farm is the Rock House that Rose had built for her parents so that they could have a modern house with conveniences which would save them from daily chores. Laura and Almanzo lived there for 8 years until Rose moved to New York and then they took the furniture from the Rock House and moved back to the Farm House. They felt the Farm House was home even though it still had a wood cook stove and an old claw foot tub. They preferred to be in the house they built with items from the land. Almanzo was a very handy craftsman and had made several tables and a lamp from wood from the farm.
I was so excited to see where Laura had sat and written all those stories. I am now listening to "By the Shores of Silver Lake." I loved being able to listen to Laura's descriptions of the places I had just visited. I continued east today to Indianapolis where my Aunt Jane and Uncle Don live. I crossed another large river from Missouri into Illinois and drove through the land of one of our presidents. Email me if you know the answers to these two questions. Tomorrow morning I will head north to South Bend to pick up Grace from Saint Mary's College and then we are heading home.
The car has over 5,000 miles from the last two weeks and it will need a little rest for some time. I hope you enjoyed reading about my Little House travels. i will have one more stop some day to Malone, NY where Almanzo Wilder was born. Maybe I will get there this summer.
Check out the school's photo gallery for more photos.