The men undertook two types of work—medical services and community building.  The medical clinic opened in December 1943.  Men built a twenty-four bed hospital out of a tobacco barn in three months, constructing many of the furnishings so that it opened August 13, 1944.  By the end of the month Dr. and Mrs. Earl Stover arrived to establish dental services. 

Soon thereafter Dr. H. Clair Amstutz joined the medical staff and a fifth nurse arrived.  Still later, Dr. and Mrs. George Troyer arrived to help staff the medical unit.  By February 1945, the hospital staff numbered sixteen.  They operated two general clinics as well as clinics for tuberculosis, pediatrics, obstetrics, and venereal disease.  In addition, the unit serviced clinics in four outlying districts.  The staff also offered a three months’ training program for local young women to become nurses’ aides.  

“One of the outstanding achievements at La Plata in the mid 1940s was the discovery of the widespread tuberculosis present through the use of X-Ray and laboratory tests.  This was news to medical authorities in San Juan where the majority of the populace was in better circumstances.  A second achievement was the development of public medical clinics for rural residents.” (Florence Badertscher Amstutz, in “Detour . . . Main Highway”: Our CPS Stories, p. 82)

When Ozzie Goering arrived, he was offered three job possibilities—cook, running the laundry, or working as a mechanic.  “None of these seemed to interest me so I finally chose the laundry.  The first weekend before I started work was a sad time for me.”  On Monday, matters changed, as the director had read a letter from Roman Gingerich, Ozzie’s CPS camp director at Mulberry.

On Monday morning he called me into his office and asked if I would be interested in running the recreation program, teach phys ed. in the local junior high schools and coach the sports teams.  What a relief that was to me.  Never in my life since then or before did I put in as long a day working as I did there.  I left for the school at eight o’clock in the morning and then had the recreation program for the community people until about nine o’clock in the evening.  Having had an athletic background in high school and college this assignment was a real joy.

This was probably the happiest period of my life as well as the busiest.  If the Mennonite Central Committee had offered me a contract to work with them for the rest of my life without pay, I probably would have signed it. Certainly the impact that this service project had on me influenced my interest in service projects for the rest of my life. (The Eden Peace Witness: A Collection of Personal Accounts pp. 101-102)

In community building, the unit emphasized agricultural education, recreation and community relief.  The unit cooperated with already established 4-H clubs and later began a dairy herd.  Men provided leadership in an organized sports program for both young and old and extended this service in near-by centers.  This expanded to instruction in health and physical education in the schools and a boy’s summer camp.  The community sanitation program included conducting surveys, showing health films and constructing sanitary latrines. 

As part of the relief program for families, the La Plata center operated a milk station, provided hot breakfasts for children and distributed clothing.  Staff later offered community nutrition demonstrations as a component of the milk station. 

One CPS man Robert Ehert, a licensed embalmer, started a mortuary service in 1945 and it continued after his demobilization.  The men erected a chicken barn and started an orchard.  During 1944-45, two CPS wives, Margaret Weaver and Myrtle Buller taught school-- Margaret in the La Plata public school and Myrtle along with Carol Glick in the Baptist Academy in Barranquintas.  The following year, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Miller began teaching in the Baptist Academy and stayed on after demobilization.

When requests came from local residents for a church building, the PRRA suggested that the Mennonites might want to consider a more permanent relationship.   Since “organized religious worship cannot be conducted in a government building” (Gingerich, p. 267) MCC relief suggested to the MCC Executive Committee that the unit build a chapel.  Construction began in November 1945 and the chapel was dedicated March 17, 1946.  This and the development of a Mennonite missionary project in Pulguillas, a rural mountain area with medical, educational and economic development needs, led to establishing a mission in Puerto Rico that continued after the war.