For their long and ongoing community service Springwood Rotarians Norm and Cheryl Kitto have been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in this year's King's Birthday Honours.
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It was a love of community service in Rotary that brought them together and later sparked love. So after more than 17 years of marriage it is fitting that they have been honoured together.
Mr Kitto received his OAM for service to the communities of the Blue Mountains and western Sydney.
Mrs Kitto was honoured for the same reason, but with the addition of her service to people with disabilities. She is currently Chair at Dare's Disability Advisory Committee after a decade of service on the Dare Board.
"It's quite unbelievable," Mr Kitto, 73, said of the joint OAM honours.
"You don't do it for accolades, but you do see the results of the work you do. It's really nice to be acknowledged."
They both have given 15 years of service to the Ronald McDonald House in Westmead as regular volunteer night carers. Only Mr Kitto's dodgy knees giving out recently, has put paid to that strenuous role.
The pair has been giving back to the Mountains and western Sydney communities since the '70s - first as founding members in the youth organisation Rotaract (baby Rotary) and then later in Rotary itself. They have also both received one of that organisation's highest honours - named as Paul Harris Fellows.
"We are Rotary tragics," Mrs Kitto, 64, admitted to the Gazette laughing.
She was the first female to join Granville Rotary in 1992 when the organisation started accepting women. And after relocating to Springwood to be with her husband, she never felt the need to leave the volunteer community group.
"When I joined Granville [Rotary] I was a CES manager and ... a single parent. My son immediately got 34 sets of grandparents."
"There's always something to do, there's like-minded people there. They've got the generosity of the heart," she said.
Mr Kitto, who still works and volunteers as a bus driver, added: "You get the warm fuzzy feel [from helping]".
They've both held numerous roles with Rotary at local and district levels, but their highlights have been helping young people. [Between them they have four children, nine grandchildren and four great grandchildren].
When the Gazette visited to photograph the pair they caught up with the latest beneficiary of their kindness - their 15th youth exchange student Matias Navarro from Chile who is currently at Blaxland High and being billeted by the pair.
The Kittos work with Rotary has included installation of the wheelchair accessible carousel built at Buttenshaw Park and helping the bushfire relief drive after the 2013 Winmalee fires and later for bushfire-affected Tathra.
Mr Kitto, said at the time the Rotary Club of Springwood Inc facilitated 206 payments totalling $267,000 to Blue Mountains families directly affected by total or partial loss. The money left over went to the community exercise park new equipment, to the Yellow Rock Rural Fire Service and Emma Parade Community Fire Unit.
At the time he said "no-one that contacted us missed out".
The Kittos were part of the 737 Australians honoured by the Governor-General David Hurley.
"Some names are well-known, but the vast majority are not - they are people who work tirelessly and selflessly to make a difference in our community," the Governor-General said.
It is his last Honours list and he said "learning their stories has been inspiring and makes me enormously optimistic for our future".
Recipients will attend investiture ceremonies at Government House in coming months to receive the insignia of their award.
