Camp men, active in governance of the camp, created standards of conduct.  The multiple points of view represented among the men added value to programs and activities of the camp. 

Making hooked rugs and turning wood became leading hobbies at the camp.  Dale, Elmer and Kelly Palmer, were paroled from federal prison for failing to register and assigned to the CPS camp.  They brought the rug craft with them. 

J. Hobart Goering helped organize the many good singers at the camp, directed the choir and sang in an octet.  The groups not only sang for services at the camp, but also at churches in town. (in The Eden Peace Witness pp. 72-79)

Robert Kreider was appointed educational director for the camp and Ray Schlichting as business manager.  Both continued to serve the Mennonite Central Committee in a variety of roles until 1948, “thus giving the longest terms of service” of any appointees.  (Gingerich p. 114)

A three weeks crafts school taught by David Kope in June 1945 at Denison, Camp No. 18, trained men from several camps, including Colorado Springs, to serve as craft leaders. 

From 1944 on, one of the men at Colorado Springs served as a project training assistant.  He would work with both the camp director and the work superintendent.  He prepared orientation courses for new assignees, job training for the work project, general training and orientation to work responsibilities, assisted the educational director in leisure time training courses in the camp education program, and prepared records and reports for the technical agency. 

The men published a camp paper Pike View News from September 6, 1941 through January 1945. It offered a record of camp activities for the men, helped interpret camp efforts, and reported major events for friends and others.

The camp enjoyed good relations with the community of Colorado Springs.  Camp men regularly engaged in softball and other sports contests with the YMCA.  The Colorado Springs community rallied in support of the camp when in the spring of 1943 it was rumored that the camp was to be closed. 

In July 1942 the men at CPS Camp No. 21 at Cascade Locks protested the order to have George Kiyoshi Yamada discharged from CPS so that he might be assigned to a Japanese internment camp.   Selective Service and the War Relocation Authority agreed to allow Yamada to transfer to an inland camp and in late July 1942 he moved to CPS Camp No. 5 in Colorado Springs where he worked on the dishwashing crew.  In his three years at Colorado Springs, he participated in a Congress of Racial Equality civil rights project to racially integrate the theaters in town.  Yamada spent eight days in the El Paso County jail. 

By January 1945, forty wives had moved to Colorado Springs and the community often advertised for “Mennonite women” to fill jobs.  In the base camps, men could not stay with their wives overnight and “an eleven p.m. bedcheck” enforced the Selective Service policy.  Wives often faced challenging living conditions. Since both a military base and a CPS camp were near Colorado Springs, military and CO wives often lived nearby in apartments or flats.  Barbara Thomas, an Amish Mennonite woman, after completing the cotton harvest in Oklahoma, followed her husband to Colorado Springs.  (Goossen p. 53)  Many wives volunteered as nurses, dieticians, matrons and their contributions to camp morale were invaluable. 

Not only CPS wives, but also pacifist women sought to work in support of men in the CPS camps.  Louise Evans, a Vassar College student wrote to CPS in 1942 asking to serve at the camp while spending the summer in her parents’ Colorado Springs home.  (Goossen p. 53)