The kids are alright

Marque Cass knows how to make people listen. Cass, a 17-year-old Bloomington High School North student, has spent the past year working on the radio program at Rhino's Youth Center and All Ages Club. He spends many hours after school and on weekends in the studio working on his increasingly popular hip-hop show with his friend Michael Russo. Cass is just one of more than 100 kids that make the most of their time after school and on the weekends by participating in Rhino's many programs.\nThis week, Rhino's is celebrating its 10 year evolution from a once-a-week performance space to a full-time education and entertainment center. Starting last night, the club will host events to mark its 10th anniversary. Atmosphere, Johnny Socko, MU330 and Blue Screen are all making musical contributions to the fest. There will also be an open house and silent auction Saturday to benefit the club, where anyone in the community is welcome to place bids on prizes such as recording studio time or a new guitar.\nJohnny Socko drummer Dylan Wissing is looking forward to performing at Rhino's for the anniversary celebration. The band has been performing at Rhino's since its creation 10 years ago.\n"We love playing there," he says. "Rhino's crowds… are really open, they are there to listen to the music."\nRhino's set up contributes to its relaxed atmosphere. Kids clutching skateboards are greeted by their friends. Couches are scattered around the room. Three arcade games and one claw machine crowded in the corner invite the challenge of a new player. The Rhino's logo consumes the wall behind the stage. Music from the production room fills the club. The door to the office is almost always open.\nWissing, a Bloomington native, says he thinks Rhino's is an important part of the community and wishes he could have had a place like Rhino's when he was growing up.\n"There wasn't a lot to do but cruise the strip," he says. Bloomington's entertainment scene was somewhat limited for teenagers when Wissing lived here.\n"It was not something easy to see that we needed," says Brad Wilhelm, director of the club. He says that just as general community outreach programs such as homeless shelters and job placement offices are essential, so is "alternative programming for disenfranchised youth."\nThe idea for this alternative program was born out of Bloomington's local alternative school system, Harmony School. An afterschool program called Rock and Roll High School was developed to expose kids to all aspects of the music industry. Professionals in all areas of concert production came in to help the students learn how to put on a successful rock concert. Every few weeks, students would put on shows for the rest of the community. Eventually they began to run out of room and needed another place to continue the rock and roll education.\n"We needed more time than Harmony was able to accommodate," says Steve "Roc" Bonchek, director of Harmony School. "We decided we needed some other funding to move downtown."\nHe says the Bloomington Prosecutor's office happened to have some extra money and the city saw the Rock School as a good thing to spend it on.\nIn 1992, the Rock School moved downtown into a rented space that was most recently occupied by the Cellar Lounge and was renamed Rhino's by the kids in charge. The selection of the large endangered species is a constant reminder of the club's ties to Harmony, as the rhino is the school mascot.\nWhen Wilhelm started at Rhino's nine-and-a-half years ago, he had much less responsibility.\n"There was no youth outreach, no substance abuse (programming), no issue counseling," he says. "Just music, once a week."\nMajor changes began in the spring of '94, when Rhino's became a member agency of the United Way. It moved to its current location in April of that year and Wilhelm worked with the kids to come up with additional programming. Despite the club's inconspicuous location in a strip mall on Walnut, kids still find their way there.\n"There is always a young person coming up with a new idea," Wilhelm says. "That is fun… to dream something and to make it happen."\nToday, in addition to learning club management, students have the opportunity to help produce a television program, produce a radio show or work on the Youth Mural Project. They also have access to counseling services and are always welcome to "just 'hang out'" from 3 to 6 p.m. on weekdays.\nThe television show called RHINOPLASTY airs once a week on Community Access Television. New shows opens once a month. Students are trained in all aspects of the show's production, including writing, editing, producing and design. They edit the video they take on their digital video camera with an Apple G4 computer. \n"We try to think up stupid skits we think are funny," says 17-year-old Matt Romy. Romy says they created one skit called "Phillippe, Master Criminal" in which the central character, Phillippe, would go around committing minor misdemeanors like double parking.\nThe weekly radio shows are produced by a group of 60 students and air every Saturday from 4 to 8:30 p.m. on WFHB. Employees of the Bloomington Parks and Recreation help the students with the show. There are 10 individual shows within the four and a half hour time span, all with a unique feel. \nCass and his friend Michael Russo have a very successful hip-hop show that airs at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Cass said they had more than 30 calls to the show last week.\n"We'll do a contest or something and we'll get maybe six or seven phone calls in a minute which is really good for a local station," Russo says.\nThe Youth Mural Project allows students to work with a local artist to create projects that beautify the city. According to the Rhino's Web site, the project has served as a deterrent to graffiti. Their most recent display is at People's Park on Kirkwood.\nThe music is still a major part of the club, but now bands sometimes appear three or four nights a week. Local, regional and national acts all grace the Rhino's stage.\nMU330 trombonist Robert Bell says he likes that Rhino's shows people that "there is more to music than commercial radio."\nBeing one of two all ages music venues in town, Rhino's is one of the only places underage students can legally go to see musical acts on the weekends.\n"A lot of bars set up youth clubs and always failed," Bonchek says. "This is really a celebration of the community coming together to make it happen… to meet a need that wasn't being met."\nRhino's works in conjunction with the John Waldron Arts Center, Community Access Television, Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department, the United Way and many others.\nWilhelm expects to continue this partnership for the next 10 years as well.\n"We hope we will be at a bigger building and expand our offerings," he says. \nThe fundraising effort will also have to grow in order to provide resources for their expanding menu of youth opportunities.\n"We want to stay downtown because the kids like to be downtown," Bonchek says. "But it is hard to find an affordable space."\nHe says by keeping Rhino's in a central location, it prevents the club from becoming exclusive to kids from one side of town or another. He added that the Rhino's advisory board will be meeting after the celebration to discuss where they want to take the program and how they plan to get there.\n"For the people who do enjoy it and come here, it is a place to go and hang out with your friends and be creative with whatever you are doing," Romy says. "We're treated equally. A lot of times adults look down on teenage kids. We're not treated like that here"