Rita Lopienski is the Manager of Community Life at the Victory Centre of Bartlett, a supportive living group for seniors, where she shares one of her hobbies and passions-drumming circles. The well-traveled Lopienski, also a degreed music therapist, has amassed a collection of drums and percussion instruments from Asia, Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and the Native American culture. For more than 10 years, she has been sharing the instruments and their rich origin stories with the drumming circles she leads both professionally at the Victory Centre and as a volunteer in the many Bartlett civic groups in which she is active, including Bartlett Woman's Club and Arts in Bartlett. Village President Michael E. Kelly says, "Listen to the rhythm of the drumbeats in one of Rita Lopienski's drumming circles and you'll hear the echoes of other cultures and the histories of ancient peoples."

In addition to her drumming, Rita has also volunteered her time and talent as an actress to the Bartlett History museum. She performed in a skit celebrating the anniversary of Bartlett School and in a dramatic program that complemented a museum exhibit, "The Remarkable Women of Early Bartlett," a role that she later reprised for the celebration of the Bartlett Woman's Club anniversary.