DAVID GALE : Movie Mogul’s Cause: Youths With AIDS

When Hollywood executive David Gale decides to champion a cause, he does a lot more than write a check. Most recently, he organized the West Coast’s first camp for children and families with AIDS, opening in September in Malibu.

Camp Pacific Heartland will house 75 campers, many from poor families or from homes disrupted by drug and alcohol abuse, giving them an opportunity to spend a week playing in nature free of charge.

For the last year, Gale and a handful of other volunteers have developed a local camp in conjunction with Camp Heartland, an association of similar camps in several states that was featured in early July on a CBS news documentary.

Gale, 37, a production executive recently appointed to lead MTV’s new movie division, puts as much emphasis on charity work as he does on his career. He has a bachelor’s degree from Stanford, a law degree from New York University, a senior executive’s salary and a house in the Hollywood Hills. But he says he can’t ignore people who are less fortunate.

“It’s a way for me to feel like I may be doing a little to alleviate the suffering. Just feeling sorry for somebody isn’t going to help them,” he said. “Getting involved, actually doing something, is how I feel a sense of accomplishment.”

Since high school, Gale has volunteered his time. Even as he launches Camp Pacific Heartland, he continues to spend several hours a month helping out at a food pantry in Los Angeles.

“I’ve been through periods in my career when I’ve asked myself whether it’s worth doing. Especially in the movie business--I mean, we’re not curing cancer here.”

Gale said he never feels that way about the time he spends helping people. Though cajoling people to donate money and time to causes “can be just as frustrating,” he said, “at least you know that what you’re doing is a good thing.”

Camp Pacific Heartland gives children living with HIV and AIDS a place to go to escape the rejection--from community, friends and even family--that often dogs them after a diagnosis. “One week of caring and acceptance,” Gale said, “can provide a lifetime of hope.”

While doing all the normal summer-camp sorts of things, campers also receive specialized counseling and medical care to help them cope with their illness.

“They make friends, increase their self-esteem, talk about their fears and feelings and, perhaps for the first time since diagnosis, learn what it’s like to be embraced rather than rejected,” Gale wrote in a fund-raising appeal.

In just a few months, Gale has persuaded friends, professionals, attorneys and accountants to donate time and money to set up the nonprofit camp corporation. He also tends to the bookkeeping and has raised $20,000. His former boss, producer Gale Anne Hurd, and Olympic diving champion Greg Louganis serve as honorary chairmen.

Camp Pacific Heartland’s financial goal for this year is $150,000. “We will make it happen, one way or another,” Gale said. “One way or another, we will send these kids to camp.”

The camp is a labor of love for Gale, born from his own extended childhood illness, a serious gastrointestinal problem that required multiple surgeries and long periods of bed rest.

When he visited Camp Heartland earlier this year and “saw [the campers] being treated like regular kids, it was overwhelming and heartbreaking,” he said. Heartbreaking, because the specter of terminal illness was never far removed; overwhelming, because of the joy he felt from campers who had finally found “a community where they could feel safe.”

To contact Camp Pacific Heartland, write them at 3663 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles 90010-2798. (213) 464-1235.