The town celebrated two more heroes this week by acknowledging the mammoth contributions of husband and wife duo Robert and Valerie Colgrave at the George Town Volunteer of the Year awards. 

The pair, who were presented with the award by mayor Bridget Archer on Tuesday night, said the honour had come as a welcome surprise. 

“We go to quite a few functions so we thought we'd just go along to the function and add support for somebody - and it was us,” Mr Colgrave said.

“We were surprised - the mayor who was reading it all out, we knew her very well but we didn't know this was planned.”

Mr Colgrave is well-known in George Town for organising unparalleled spit roasts, driving vehicles for the Second Bite program and regularly volunteering for the Rotary Club. 

His partner in crime has proven to be just as tireless in her service to the community, presenting a weekly show on Tamar FM, contributing to Tamar Valley Inner Wheel, Soroptimist International, and regularly sharing her musical talent with the community.

“For a number of years my wife has been an organist at the Uniting Church and she plays the piano at Ainslie House senior citizens home once a month for a sing-along for them,” Mr Colgrave said.

“She plays for weddings and funerals and things like that and never charges anybody.”

Mr Colgrave said he and his wife would continue to volunteer as long as there was a need for it. 

“If it needs to be done you step up and do it - that's the way we were brought up, my wife and I.

“We both grew up in the country and everybody helped everybody else. 

“It's no big deal, if we can make a difference in the community we're happy to do that.”

Les Cole, Lana and Heath Smith, Kevin Ellis, Vicki Axton and Paul Williams were also nominated for the award.