West Palm Beach Volunteer Honored for Decades Helping Homeless

When Margie Yansura was just 3 years old, her parents asked her to donate her toys to Cuban refugee children, and that moment changed everything.

Since moving to Palm Beach County in 1978, Yansura has spent nearly five decades volunteering with organizations serving homeless neighbors. The Town of Palm Beach United Way recently awarded her the prestigious Nettie Finkle Award, recognizing her tireless work with The Lord's Place, the county's largest homeless services agency.

"To me, giving back is the joy in life," Yansura told the Palm Beach Daily News. "It brings meaning to my life outside of my family."

Her commitment runs deep. As a child in Detroit, Yansura watched her parents transform their basement into a donation center, quietly helping classmates stay warm during brutal winters. The unspoken rule was simple: never mention seeing your friends wearing the donated clothes, because everyone deserves dignity during hard times.

That lesson stuck. Just one year after arriving in West Palm Beach, Yansura organized a benefit at John Prince Park for Vietnamese refugees resettling in the area. She later joined The Lord's Place as public relations officer, serving 17 years before retirement.

But retirement didn't slow her down. Yansura launched creative writing classes for women recently released from prison, bringing notebooks and prompts so they could document their hopes for the future. She teamed up with a friend to teach sewing classes, helping participants learn to create and repair household items.

Today, she visits The Lord's Place multiple times weekly to manage their clothing bank, organizing donations so people can "select something like you would at a store." She also chairs her church's Missions Committee, organizing drives for cereal, shoes, blankets, and Thanksgiving baskets.

The Ripple Effect

Yansura helped transform The Lord's Place's awareness events into their main fundraiser, the March to End Homelessness. What started as walks to promote overnight sleepouts grew into a county-wide movement bringing thousands together.

Anne Noble, Chief Advancement Officer at The Lord's Place, says Yansura "operates from a place of radical compassion, believing that every human being deserves dignity, opportunity, and community." Those values show up in every donation drive, every event, and every interaction.

Twice monthly, Yansura helps feed hundreds of families through her church's program at 900 Brandywine Road in West Palm Beach. She greets each driver personally, turning a food distribution into a moment of human connection.

From a 3-year-old learning to share her toys to a volunteer honored for 45 years of service, Yansura proves that compassion taught early can create ripples that last a lifetime.