First Contestant Chosen
by Pamela S. Thompson
“I am honored to be one of the 10 finalists. Lord willing, my key will open the lock and I would be the winner of one of the new homes.”
In the 1970s when Alan Kliewer was growing up in Henderson, which is 15 miles southeast of York, he delivered the Lincoln Journal on his bike after school. For two to three years when Alan was in grade school he had the paper route.
Today, the 44-year old, soft spoken man wearing a Husker hat and sweatshirt is the first contestant of the 10 finalists entered to win a brand new home in the Journal Star’s Ultimate Home Delivery contest. Kliewer was chosen randomly from the pool of subscribers and notified early last week.
“It was really unexpected,” he said Wednesday during his visit to the Journal Star to sign the necessary paperwork in order to be a contestant. “It was a total shock. I didn’t know what to say.”
Calling him at home to tell him that he was officially the first to be chosen was Staci Lunders from the Journal Star’s Consumer Products Division who is heading up the marketing effort for the UHD campaign. Lunders said she left a message on Kliewer’s home answering message first before he called her back and they spoke directly.
Kliewer, who has lived in Lincoln since 1984, studied auto mechanics at Southeast Community College. He said he usually reads the entire Sunday paper and has been a subscriber since 1994. Before he subscribed, he always bought the Sunday paper to read, always grabbing the Sports section first.
Besides college football in general and the Huskers in particular, Kliewer said his other passion is that he enjoys listening to music, especially classic rock and blues. He played the drums and percussion in the band from middle school through high school, but never owned his own drum set. Instead, he practiced on the set at school.
If he were to win the new house, Kliewer said he’d be most excited to have a basement. Maybe he’d even buy a drum set for the basement, since the home he currently owns in the southern section of Arnold Heights is only one level. While he has enjoyed living in the Arnold Heights neighborhood for the last 14 years and knows all of his immediate neighbors, he said he is intrigued by the Fallbrook development and is familiar with the area since his doctor’s office is located there.
Besides his friends and neighbors, Kliewer said he immediately told his 80-year old mother in Henderson when he heard the news he was in fact a contestant. He’s planning on telling his entire family more about it during an upcoming visit over the Easter weekend.
“I’ve never won much,” he said shyly. “It’s all new to me.”
