The Armed Forces Center (AFSC) at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport opened on November 22, 1970 – four days before Thanksgiving Day. Maggie Purdum, who piloted the initiative that eventually led to establishing the Servicemen’s Center (years later, the Board of Directors approved changing the center’s name to the AFSC). Maggie and a team of local citizens raised the necessary funds to open the center in a space provided by the Metropolitan Airports Commission. An 8th-grade teacher, Jeanne Morford, volunteered for the very first shift. She later became the center’s board president, and 50 years later is still volunteering there every Monday.
In a letter written on January 31, 1971, Maggie wrote, “I’ve been very tied up with the Serviceman’s Center. It is just a wonderful thing. We have had 3500 service people there since November 22, and they are so grateful. They can’t believe that people really care.” She passed away in 2003. The AFSC has now greeted well over a million military personnel, dependents, and retirees as they transit through the MSP Airport. We have over 180 active volunteers, the majority of them having served over five years.