By David K. Williams
Menomonie High School senior Colten Novak is the Menomonie Optimist Club’s
February Youth of the Month. The Optimists have been honoring outstanding Dunn County youth for over 35 years. Colten is the son of Darren Novak and Jen Wright, and Erin and Bill Freeman.
Colten Novak is a four-year letter-winner on the Menomonie football team and
was named Academic All-State for the football 23-24 season. He is also a track and field team member. His academic interests include Spanish and U.S. history,
in which he has taken an AP course, as well as the sciences. He intends to enroll at UW-Platteville to major in environmental engineering and minoring in Spanish. In addition to outstanding academic work, Colten enjoys giving back to his community, having served as a bell-ringer for the Salvation Army, and helping run events at the Fun in the Sun field day at elementary schools. His teachers describe him as very accountable, coachable and respectful.
The Menomonie Optimist Club serves the youth of Dunn County through the
Youth of the Month honor program, provides a dictionary to every third grader in
the county, has been doing work projects with youth at Hoffman Hills for over 30 years, and stages the Menomin Meander, a family-friendly and free bike ride each August.
