AIDS Service Group in South New Jersey to Close

A 22-year-old AIDS service organization in Bellmawr is closing its doors, the victim of cuts in government and private-sector support.

In recent months, the AIDS Coalition of Southern New Jersey (ACSNJ) was less and less able to carry out its mission of managing cases and providing day-to-day services such as transportation, officials said.

"You just reach the point where you're not making ends meet," ACSNJ attorney Paul Mainardi said. The action had been discussed for several months before a unanimous board vote May 25, Mainardi said. The organization will cease operations this summer.

ACSNJ has 27 employees, 400 volunteers, and an annual budget of $2.1 million. Other community organizations are prepared to help absorb its 1,700 clients, but they likely will not have ACSNJ's focus on community services.

Other alternatives are Garden State Infectious Disease Associates in Voorhees and the Camden Area Health Education Center. In 2007, New Jersey had 1,164 cases of AIDS, the ninth-highest caseload nationally, according to CDC.

Among those witnessing the closing of ACSNJ is one of its founders. In 1988, Ruth Levy of Moorestown donated property to start a thrift store and $500 toward a food bank, her way of coping with her son's diagnosis of AIDS.

"My son, his last words to me were, 'Mom, make sure people are fed,'" Levy said.

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