Who is Margaret Wilonsky? Volunteer, Friend, and an AT&T Performing Arts Center Treasure

Before I walked through the glass doors at the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, Margaret Wilonsky was out of her seat at the concierge desk ready to greet me. Wilonsky, many staff and fellow volunteers will say, has the type of infectious joy that makes you feel right at home at the AT&T Performing Arts Center.  

A genuine people-person, no-one’s first impression is that she’s shy, which adds to her notoriety all around town. With her first volunteer role as a teenage candy striper, Wilonsky’s resume has since gone on to include the FIFA World Cup, Dallas Arts District, being the volunteer coordinator for The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, ushering at Dallas Theater Center, Theatre Three, and WaterTower Theatre, coordinating meetings for Downtown Dallas, Inc., and helping 4H kids stay on time for their livestock shows at the State Fair of Texas. She said she learned her love for giving back to her community from her father and uncle, a family physician whom she says would send patients home with food if they couldn’t pay their medical bill. 

But where she truly feels at home, says Wilonsky, is at the Center where she’s been a volunteer since it opened in 2009. Her late husband, Herschel, shared her passion for the arts and the Center. The Wilonkskys became known to Margaret’s colleagues at the Center as an inseparable duo. Shortly after Herschel’s passing, the Center’s senior house director Charles Moore wrote a letter to staff members and volunteers, saying, “Herschel was frequently at Center events accompanying Margaret, bragging he had the honor to be her escort for the evening.” 

When her husband passed away in 2021, Wilonsky found support and camaraderie with production staff members like pal Patrick “Pat Man” Keller, whom by her account, is a great hugger. And anytime she needs a shift covered, swapped, or needs a companion to grab lunch or dinner, she knows she can always pick up the phone and call a fellow volunteer.

Wilonsky’s many roles at the Center include usher, coordinator for the annual Carter BloodCare Blood Drive, tour assistant, and concierge. In 2014, she was named Volunteer of the Year and carries that well-earned badge of honor with her everywhere she interacts with patrons.

A consummate arts lover, Wilonsky not only gives her time; she’s also a Center member who thinks financial support is an important part of giving back to its larger arts education and community engagement mission. 

Volunteering, says Wilonsky, is “another avenue to make friends and get together,” adding in jest, “it also keeps me out of trouble.”