Center succeeds under leadership

Rhino's All-Ages Music Club in Bloomington recently moved into a new building to accommodate the growing number of people involved in the nonprofit's after-school programs and its weekend music venue.\nBehind the scenes, a group of young people makes that growth possible, working to develop those programs and run the weekend shows, but even behind those young people, one man -- Brad Wilhelm -- has helped Rhino's see its vision come alive. \nWilhelm, who has been Rhino's program director for the past 13 years, said he finds his position part job, part mission and part enjoyment. He works with youth and community members to promote Rhino's purpose: to provide a unique, drug-free environment for high-school age people to express their ideas and interests using their talents.\n"What I want a kid to take away from here is a sense of self," Wilhelm said. \nHe said teenagers can find their sense of self through playing music on the weekends, writing for Rhino's print publication, The Antagonist, seeing their work on the television program, "Rhinoplasty," hearing their voices on Youth Radio or seeing the murals they helped create.\n"There are very few opportunities for young people to take control of their lives, and that's what I want Rhino's to be," he said.\nRhino's was started in 1992 by the Harmony Education Center. Its name symbolizes the importance of public art, community service and cooperation, after Harmony Middle School students worked to restore a vandalized sculpture of a rhinoceros for the Bloomington community. \nWilhelm came on the scene soon after Rhino's began. Steve Bonchek, Harmony Education Center's executive director, hired him in 1992, and Wilhelm became program director in 1993.\n"Basically he has been there from the beginning," Bonchek said. "It's really been through Brad's dedication and commitment that Rhino's has been able to grow and expand."\nBonchek decided to bring Wilhelm on staff at Rhino's because of his experience with music and his ability to relate to teens, Bonchek said. \nBefore working at Rhino's, Wilhelm volunteered with Bloomington Playwrights Project. Through his volunteering, he noticed he worked well with the teens coming to the workshops, he said.\nAlso, Wilhelm had background in music from working as the concert director for IU's Union Board while in college, from playing in his own band and from booking bands at Jake's, a venue previously located in what is now Axis.\nAt the time, he didn't know it, he said, but lessons learned about handling difficult situations as the concert director would help him later.\nOne example, he said, came in 1994, when Rhino's had an out-of-town, female, punk rock band whose members were openly lesbian, come play. Wilhelm had no issues with them being lesbian, he said, but problems arose when one member took off her shirt to make a statement about male-female equality. Wilhelm told her to put her shirt back on, and the show ended, he said.\nA reviewer at the show wrote about the incident, and Rhino's received intense criticism from some members of the community -- "really ugly criticism about the kids that come here," Wilhelm said. "It was really very ugly and very, very disheartening." \nThe experience, however, also opened his eyes to the positives and negatives of his position at Rhino's, he said.\n"It was a turning point for me," he said. "I decided it was absolutely imperative we were here for the kids with green hair."\nNow Rhino's has a large base of community support. It is a member of Monroe County United Way, where Wilhelm is the president of the director's association, and has partnered with Bloomington Parks and Recreation.\nWhile that experience helped Wilhelm realize the necessity for Rhino's in the community, the teens coming to Rhino's had already shown him his position would be more than an ordinary job.\nSoon after becoming program director, Wilhelm noticed teens coming to him for advice with how to deal with parents, friends, school and other issues that concerned them.\n"I realized very soon that this is what this job should be about," he said. "I listen to their problems without judging them and help them if need be. People come back saying, 'You may not remember, but you said this to me once and it was true.'"\nWilhelm said he would like to see more parental involvement at Rhino's, but it doesn't happen very often because Rhino's is viewed as a parent-free zone for some youth.\nSome young people might want Rhino's to be parent-free, but Wilhelm is more concerned with making it drug and smoke free. \nHis strong position on keeping Rhino's smoke-free stems from losing his grandmother, whom he was very close to, to lung cancer when he was 19.\n"I care about every single one of these kids," he said. \nCaren Stohll, youth services manager at Bloomington Parks and Recreation, has known Brad for eight years and said she has seen that concern as Brad works with the youth.\n"He just really cares about those kids," she said, "and he is totally dedicated to really trying to help those kids. He believes they have great potential."\nWilhelm doesn't want to leave Rhino's until he has to -- "I'd like them to throw me out when I'm 70," he said, but he hopes Rhino's continues without him when that happens.\n"I want to promote Rhino's, but not me, because hopefully Rhino's would exist without me," he said. "I want this to be my life's work, my legacy"