The remaining funds left in the Hero Trust account have been given over to preserve New Zealand's AIDS Quilt so future generations can remember the over 700 Kiwis who have died of the epidemic since it began in the early 1980s. Precious panels: NZ's AIDS Quilt Back in March at a community meeting called at the NZ AIDS Foundation's Auckland HQ, it was unanimously agreed that the two remaining Hero trustees would wind up the long-standing Hero Trust, as Auckland's LGBT event organisers looked to forming a new festival for future years. The Trust account has now been closed, and after legal expenses, a sum of $5,620.30 was left for distribution, Hero Trustees Richard Kittelty and Mike Binis tell GayNZ.com. PRESERVING OUR QUILT While other LGBT groups were considered to receive the funds, the Quilt Project was chosen to get the full amount as the money will make a big difference to the project, which has so far only received a small amount from the Gay Auckland Business Association, say the Trustees. "It is unlikely in the current economic climate that funds will be easily accessible for a project that is historical in one sense, but is in fact an important record of our community's history," they explain. "We felt that The Quilt Project is closely related to the life cycle of Hero, born from HIV awareness and dedicated to AIDS visibility. We think it appropriate that Hero's final contribution should go to a project that remembers those who have been taken from us by HIV/AIDS during the same era." Responding to some hopes from ex-Hero organisers that the money would be used for some kind of Hero wrap-up event to mark the end of the iconic Hero Festival, Richard Kittelty says "there's no way we were going to spend any money on a memorial event for Hero. The money was not raised to have a party." After some months of delay caused by Trustees travels and temporary ill health, the Hero Trust is now in the final process of dissolution, says Kittelty.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Sunday, 6th December 2009 - 1:09pm