$58,000 worth of proceeds from Heroic Gardens 2006 will go to the organisation which closed NZ's only dedicated HIV care facility, but HIV+ people will still benefit. The Heroic Gardens event has donated more than $315,000 over the last nine years to Auckland AIDS hospice Herne Bay House, closed last year by its owners, the Auckland City Mission. Heroic Gardens organiser Geoffrey Marshall says an alternative recipient for this year's proceeds were considered "very briefly" in the planning stages, but the idea was dismissed quickly as plans for this year's event had already been set in motion before the closure of Herne Bay House. "We discussed the closure very extensively with the Mission, because we were very concerned," he says. "We said as long as they continued to support the HIV/AIDS community in some way, we were quite happy with that, it didn't have to be in the form of a physical house." The Mission has replaced Herne Bay House, reported to have been sold for around $3.4 million, with a community-based HIV support service employing a three-person team: a psychologist, a registered nurse, and a social worker with HIV/AIDS experience. The replacement HIV/AIDS service is much cheaper to run, says Alexis Sawyers, the Mission's Team Leader for Fundraising. The money donated by Heroic Gardens this year amounts to over one fifth of the annual running costs. With 2005 going on record as the worst ever year for new HIV infections among gay men in the history of the epidemic in New Zealand, Sawyers says the Mission is expecting increased demand for their support service, and believes the new programme is better equipped to deal with the modern epidemic. "Herne Bay House was a very specialised service, as opposed to providing community support," she says. "Given that it's not residential based, we're expecting wider use of this service." Geoffrey Marshall says the Mission's continuing financial support for the lion's share of an HIV/AIDS service shows their commitment to the cause. "Because the service is a still young one, the effectiveness of it will be judged by the users, and only time will really tell that," he says.