Teachers of New Jersey: Melissa McHugh, Third Grade Teacher at Wayside Elementary School, Ocean Township, NJ
This is my 24th year. It’s amazing. I graduated college, student taught at Wayside, and then I got my job at Wayside. So, I’ve been in the same classroom in the same school all these years. It’s such an amazing district.
I foster dogs in my off hours. There are similarities between fostering animals and being a teacher of kids. First of all, I love anything that loves you back. For example, a little girl the other day wrote on the back of one of her papers, ‘I love Mrs. McHugh so much.’ And I wrote, ‘I love you right back.’ And that’s why I do what I do. It is for the mindfulness and the kindness and the love that you get back from these kids. When I foster dogs, I know that I am able to give them the love that they were maybe not getting at home. On the last day of school, I sob because I’m losing my little family on the last day, and with the fosters, every time they leave, it’s the same thing. I’m a soup sandwich.
I first got involved with fostering pets, especially dogs, because a woman at school does it for the Big Dog Rescue Project, and I saw that they needed fosters. Because I’m home during the summer, I thought it would be a good idea. I ran it past my daughter Cate, and Cate, who was 12 at the time, said, ‘Okay, let’s go for it.’
When we started, it was great and an amazing experience from the start. I’ve loved every dog, and I could have been a “foster fail” many times. A foster fail is when you have a foster and you want to keep them, which is considered a foster fail. There was this one dog, Roxy, in 2022, and if it wasn’t for my husband Sean saying, ‘No, Melissa, no, we already have five pets,’ I would have absolutely foster failed.
I love that my family – Cate, my other daughter Keira, and Sean – are as involved with this as I am. This was my decision to start doing this, but they totally embrace it. They love the dogs and they buy in. They want to be all in on taking care of them, loving them, and playing with them. And that has brought me so much joy. And our pets are so welcoming, too! Our dog Maeve and four cats, Harlequin, Scaramouche, Parker, and Finn, do such a great job of letting these dogs, who are complete strangers, feel accepted and a part of our family! I’m very proud of fostering. I always share photos with my kids at school of the new foster dog I have whenever I get one, and they feel like they are a part of the fostering journey. I love what I do, both at school and with the dogs, and it really is full circle for me.
Interview by Gregory Andrus
Portraits of the Jersey Shore
