• Miss Mass revisits Whaler's Cove before Miss America pageant

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  Miss Massachusetts, Alissa Musto, recently visited Whaler's Cove assisted living in New Bedford where she used to perform as a child with her father. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
• By Aimee Chiavaroli
  achiavaroli@s-t.com

  
  Posted Aug. 22, 2016 at 6:37 PM 
  
  

  NEW BEDFORD — Miss Massachusetts reconnected with folks at Whaler’s Cove before heading off to Atlantic City next month for the Miss America Pageant.

  Alissa Musto, a Rehoboth native, has a long-standing relationship with the assisted-living facility on Riverside Avenue.

  “She used to come here and perform with her father,” Activities Director Jeannine Pacheco said. “She was fantastic. She sings and plays piano.”

  She comes from a musically-talented family, Pacheco said. Her sister plays the saxophone and her brother plays the guitar. They have performed at the facility before.

  Musto's father Billy first performed at the facility about nine years ago when Pacheco found his business card. She hires him about six times per year.

  Musto began visiting with her father when she was about 10, Pacheco said. Billy recently performed in the yard at Whaler’s Cove and has performed at cookouts for residents that Pacheco used to host at her home.

  “I was surprised she came to do this,” Pacheco said, given the demands of the upcoming pageant.

  But when Pacheco called Musto’s mother Janine to ask if she would visit again, she didn’t hesitate.

  “She’d love to come back and see the residents,” Janine told Pacheco.

  Although it had been about six years since her previous visit, she and the residents didn’t forget each other.

  “She shook all their hands and knew some of them,” Pacheco said.

  Resident Robert Carroll even got a photo of Musto signed from when she used to perform at the facility.

  Pacheco was happy to see her again, too.

  “I told her how happy we were for her and how we were going to be glued to the TV on September 11,” she said.

  She said Whaler's Cove plans an ad wishing Musto good luck in the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.

• http://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20160822/NEWS/160829878