Service 1st began in Danville, Pennsylvania, in 1975 when a group of employees led by Barbara Criswell from Geisinger Medical Center identified a need for credit union services and rallied the support and involvement of their colleagues to form a credit union. At this early start, the credit union was called Geisinger Employees Federal Credit Union. Run by a volunteer staff, these individuals spread the word of the credit union movement among their peers and opened accounts at a table in the hospital cafeteria.