"Dustin Mortensen of Stevens Point is known as a leader at the Boys & Girls Club of Portage County.

He’s been attending the club after school for seven years and currently is the president of the club’s teen leadership group, Keystone. He enjoys volunteering for The Salvation Army and also helps with some of the club’s programs, such as The Haunted Hill that is put on with the YMCA, said Director of Teen Services Danielle Schulta.

“He’s just always giving back,” she said.

It’s for those leadership qualities that Dustin, 15, is Portage County’s 2010 Youth of the Year, a Boys & Girls Club of Portage County award.

The Youth of the Year program recognizes a club member who demonstrates exceptional character every month throughout the year from each of the eight clubs in the country. Those winners go into a pool, and finalists for Youth of the Year are chosen. Dustin was selected from a final group of four people.

“I was kind of surprised,” said Dustin, who attends Northland Lutheran High School near Wausau.

He said he has been helping prepare and serve meals at The Salvation Army since last summer.

“It’s taught me the importance of helping other people in the community,” he said.

Dustin won a $1,100 scholarship from the Boys & Girls Club of Portage County for college, and he said he wants to attend Concordia for either sports or science. He wants to play professional hockey or become a biochemist.

Dustin recently attended the state Youth of the Year competition where he gave a speech about what the Boys & Girls Club means to him. There, he had the chance to become Wisconsin’s Youth of the Year based on essays he wrote and character references from several people in his life.

Dustin did not advance, but Schulta said he will hold the title for the rest of the year in Portage County.

“He’ll have to continue to be the great leader that we know he is and continue to help out and be a role model,” she said."