Volunteers : * Helping hands : LA PALMA : Keith Nelson Helps ‘His’ Town Celebrate

Ask Keith Nelson why he puts so much time and energy into community projects, and he answers simply, “Because it’s my town.”

La Palma, the former mayor and council member explains, is small, and “it doesn’t have large sums of money for grandiose things. So much of the work must be done by volunteers.”

Nelson, 50, is a board member of La Palma Intercommunity Hospital, North Orange County United Way and, most recently, chairman of the committee planning La Palma’s 40th anniversary celebration in October.

Though he was only a child in 1955, when the city was incorporated, he recalls it as a vintage year.

“In 1955, the Volkswagen was coming into North America, Disneyland and the Crystal Cathedral were getting started, Elvis Presley was popular, and TV had ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ and ‘Leave It to Beaver,’ ” Nelson said. “It was a good time. And La Palma was in good company.”

Nelson, a lawyer, keeps City Hall updated on anniversary events. On a recent evening, he stopped by the City Council meeting after helping other volunteers make repairs to the band room at John F. Kennedy High School, where he is head of the band boosters club.

Other volunteers say that Nelson’s involvement in an enterprise all but ensures its success.

As one Kennedy band parent put it, “I knew when Keith Nelson got on the volunteer committee that we’d be able to raise the money to fix this band room. I figured if he was behind the project, the work would get done.”