Miss Nebraska  JaCee Pilkington of Bayard leaves today for the Miss America Pageant next week in Atlantic City. Once there, she’ll take part in a week of rehearsals and events with the other Miss America contestants working toward the finals on Sunday the 15th.

This is Pilkington’s second time representing Nebraska at a national pageant run by the Miss America organization; she was Miss Nebraska’s Outstanding Teen 2009 and competed in Orlando, Fla, for the crown as Miss America’s Outstanding Teen.

14 semifinalists will be selected by the judges with a 15th chosen by an online vote based on short videos by each contestant.  The 21-year old Pilkington, a student at Doane College, begins her video outside Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, talking about tradition.

Pilkington next goes to the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland and uses it as a backdrop to talk about her platform issue…the non-profit Operation Remember Me that she formed while Miss Nebraska’s Outstanding Teen to help recent veterans and to support active duty members of the armed services.

The Miss America Pageant partners with the Children’s Miracle Network, and Pilkington’s video takes her to Omaha Children’s Hospital where she credits its work with saving her life infant.

“After being born with a deflated lung and spending months in the hospital, my family knows what it’s like to struggle with a child facing life-threatening circumstances. As Miss America…I would be able to offer a unique and personal experience.”

At the Nebraska Capitol, Pilkington talks about having worked for U-S Senator Mike Johanns and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning and pledges to lobby as Miss Nebraska for programs she believes in, then ends her video focusing again on her rural roots.

“After growing up on a farm in western Nebraska, I’ve learned the value of hard work, getting up early, and being tough. ”

Pilkington was crowned Miss Nebraska in June and had about half the time to prepare for Miss America as her recent predecessors because it was moved up from several years of being held in January to its traditional September period.

The pageant’s preliminary activities get started next Monday, with preliminary rounds of competition leading up to the finals on Sunday the 15th…which will be broadcast live on ABC-TV.

Among this year’s other Miss America contestants are Miss South Dakota Tessa Dee and Miss Wyoming Rebecca Podio. Their videos, like Pilkington’s may be seen at www.missamerica.org/videocontest.