And that's just about the way it worked out.

This summer is Gallagher's first as director of the camp, an 80-acre enclave on a lake in Waupaca, Wis. Though he's spending his summer there-as he has done almost every year since 1988 -- the job is a full-time, year-round one, and Gallagher is buzzing with ideas and enthusiasm for the Hadassah-sponsored overnight camp.

His own experiences at CYJ are what made him want the job, he said in a recent phone conversation from camp. As a child and teen, spending summers there "was an incredible experience," he says. "The boys in my bunk remain my closest friends today. One of them is going to be the best man at my wedding."

Gallagher and fiancee Lauren Gross will wed in January. They met at CYJ when he was 14 and she was 11.

"I just loved camp," Gallagher enthuses. "It was the foundation of my Jewish identity. I had something in common with my friends at camp that I didn't have with anyone else. I was closer to them than to anyone else, and that's still true."

His involvement with the Jewish world, and especially Young Judaea, deepened as he participated in the Young Judaea Year Course program in Israel. Then came college at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned a degree in philosophy and Hebrew Studies, After graduation, he joined the Young Judaea professional staff and became the assistant director of the organization's national senior leadership camp, Camp Tel Yehudah, in Barryville, N. Y.

He also did a stint working for the Reform movement, which "showed me how much I needed to be back in camping," he says. "I kept coming back to Young Judaea, the experience I had here, my formative years, how much a part of my life it was."

So it was no wonder that when he was asked if he would be interested in the camp director's job, he jumped at the chance. Taking the job was "like coming back home," he says, especially since many of the campers are the children of his former counselors.

What makes the camp so special, he says, is that "we're not affiliated with a particular group. We draw from all sorts of Jews-Reform, Orthodox and everything in between. That informs everyone's experience in such a nice way."

Besides, at summer camp, kids "can do things that can't be done elsewhere, and they get a whole different definition of what's cool. Suddenly it's cool to know Hebrew words. Israeli dancing is cool, Friday night services are fun and enjoyable. You take away all the distractions of parents, homework, TV and video games and give them an environment where they have a uniquely Jewish experience that connects them to Israel, to Judaism and the Jewish community in a way you can't do anywhere else," he says.

As a public school student himself, "camp was where I got my Jewish," he says. "It connected me to Israel, made me want to learn Hebrew. I speak Hebrew now. I wanted to learn how to read Torah, to pray properly. I didn't like going to shul very much but I love the services at camp, and you'll find me there with the campers every single morning. That sense of community is something you won't find anywhere else."

What camp did for him, it did and continues to do for other kids as well, he says. "We hear from parents all the time that kids, even (Jewish) day school kids, want to bring more prayer, more singing, more Shabbat into their home. A huge part of it that is the camp counselor. Here's this young cool Jewish role model, not a sibling, not a teacher or a parent but some kind of combination of all those things wrapped up in a very cool attractive package." Counselors, including himself, "don't come here for the money. They're here because they want to give something back."

Camping is important to Jewish continuity as well, he says. "Kids who go to Jewish camp marry other kids who go to Jewish camp. One of the secrets of Jewish continuity is sending kids to camp. It shouldn't be such a secret."

In today's uncertain economic climate, Gallagher worries that fewer parents will decide to send their kids to camp. While there are many scholarships available, he has found that "we're not getting more requests for scholarships. People aren't even asking, they are just taking camp off their list." That would be a big mistake, he says, especially since there are any number of organizations-from the Chicago Campership program to Young Judaea itself to synagogues and the Jewish Federation-that can help parents out with camp costs.

For the future, Gallagher's vision for the camp is "we grow in terms of size and programs."

Specifically, he says, older campers need more choices and more activities within their specialized areas of interest, whether it's sports, hiking, biking, arts, drama or music.

Enlarging and improving the camp is also on the menu, and for the first time in its 20-year history, a capital development campaign and what Gallagher calls "serious fund-raising" are in the offing.

For his own future, Gallagher and Gross will be marrying in January. An epidemiologist by profession, she's working this summer at the camp, naturally, then in the fall will settle into a new job in Chicago.

Although the couple met as youngsters at camp and were longtime friends, they didn't start dating until years later. Their network of mutual camp friends enriches the relationship.

Meanwhile, Gallagher has a message that he wants to impart to all Jewish parents: "Send your kid to a Jewish camp! It's important. They'll marry other kids who went to Jewish camp and have kids who go to Jewish camp. That's Jewish continuity.

"I don't care if it's my camp," he adds. "But it would be nice."

Pauline Dubkin Yearwood