Allison Tietjen is Miss Nebraska 2017

Miss Heartland Allison Tietjen of Chester and the daughter of Cary and Amy Tietjen was crowned Miss Nebraska in North Platte June 10.
The crowning topped several days of successes for Tietjen — she won the Preliminary Evening Wear Award, the Preliminary and Overall Talent Awards, the Overall Interview Award (tie), the Miss Nebraska Community Service Award, the Miss America Community Service Award and third place in the Children’s Miracle Maker Award.
She was interviewed the morning of June 9 and felt confident the judges had enjoyed her.
Amy Tietjen said the judges chatted with her and Cary, and said they were hooked on Tietjen the first day they saw her.
“Every time she came out, she wasn’t cocky or overconfident. She was like, ‘I’m going to do the best I can here,’” Amy said, adding that a group of veterans backing Tietjen came up with  hashtag, #veteransforallison.
That’s because Tietjen’s platform has always been about veterans. Her goal after the Miss America pageant is to collect over 20,000 thank you cards to veterans and send them to the A Million Thanks organization, which will distribute the cards to veterans all over the world.
Her platform is entitled, “United We Stand: Honoring Our Military.”
She has spent year after year raising thousands of dollars for veterans to take the Honor Flights to Washington D.C.    
From the pageant, the 21-year-old student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was awarded more than $13,050 in cash scholarships, a car for her year of service and an estimated $13,000 in gifts, wardrobe and services.
“She looked at us like, ‘Can you believe this?’” Amy Tietjen said after Tietjen was crowned and her parents went backstage.
Tietjen said leading up to the crowning, she was in the top eight and then, top five.
As the runners-up were announced out of the top five, Tietjen said she kept saying to herself, “Please don’t call my name.”
She and Miss Omaha Wellesley Michael were the final two.
“We just kept telling each other no matter what, Nebraska is going to have a great representative and we were very happy for each other,” Tietjen said about that final moment.
She was crowned and took her ceremonial walk, waving to the crowd.
“Everyone was cheering for me. That is what made me cry,” she said.
Tietjen said she had about 30 to 40 people in the audience cheering her on, even an aunt and uncle from Phoenix, Ariz. Two of her closest friends from Lincoln came to support her.
“It was a long week and we thought, she is going to be OK if she doesn’t get this,” Amy said. “We were so excited when she won the evening gown and then talent, we thought, maybe she could do this.”  
Tietjen’s voice was somewhat hoarse Monday because she hasn’t slowed down since being crowned.
After the stage curtain closed, she immediately posed for photographs and then attended the after party at the Quality Inn, where she gave several interviews for television.
The night didn’t end until 4:30 a.m., but Tietjen was back at it Sunday morning. She had to be measured for her Miss America gown and work out flight times. The Miss America pageant is in Atlantic City, N.J., Sept. 10. Tietjen will also take a trip to New York City to choose a wardrobe and Kansas City to practice with her piano teacher, Bill Wolfe.