Miss New Bedford Alyssa Maitoza Visits the Rock and Fox Show

We got a visit this morning from the brand new Miss New Bedford. Tradition has it that the first duty of Miss New Bedford is to wake up early and visit Fun 107, and Alyssa Maitoza was bright and chipper first thing this morning.

Alyssa competed against six other local young women this weekend at Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech to capture the title. The Dartmouth 20-year-old talked about how much she enjoyed spending time with the other girls in the pageant.

"If any one of those other women won, I would have been cheering them on, I would have been so happy for them," she said. "Luckily, they're doing the same for me, and I'm so grateful."

Alyssa is a studying musical theatre and dance performance at Rhode Island College, which she says gave her an edge in the talent portion of the competition because she had a lot of time to practice her tap routine during her tap classes.

Maitoza's platform as Miss New Bedford will be "promoting the arts in action." She believes in the power of the performing arts in our public school systems because she says students that are exposed to the arts tend to test better and be more well-rounded individuals.

She started competing in the teen program when she was 13 years old. She was named Miss New Bedford Outstanding Teen in 2016. Her dream is to perform on cruise ships, national tours and eventually make her way to Broadway.

Alyssa will compete in the Miss Massachusetts pageant at the end of June.