Owner Stephen Smith is a sixth-generation butcher whose great, great grandfather was a butcher in Morisset in 1898.

But on Saturday it was Stephen who was taken by surprise.

He and his butcher son Jason were celebrating 15 years of being in business with a free sausage sizzle for anybody passing by.

And then state member and Lake Macquarie mayor, Greg Piper, arrived.

"It was completely out of the blue for me though everybody else in the town seemed to know what was going on," Stephen said.

Mr Piper had arrived to present Stephen with a NSW Government trophy and certificate for Community Service to recognise the fact that in the last four years Stephen had used his shop to raise more than $47,000 for charities.

From the moment Stephen opened the shop 15 years ago, the Smith family supported local community groups and events such as school fetes with free sausages or meat vouchers.

But when the 2007 drought hit, Stephen started a Bones For Bush campaign.

Customers bought the bones for their pets and the money went to drought-stricken families on properties in the upper Hunter.

A bucket for loose change was placed in the shop which raised $7000 to deliver 15-litre bottles of drinking water to the farmers.

After the drought had broken Stephen continued fundraising for local families, individuals in need, and various charities, replacing the original sign with one that read 'Bones for Charities'.

Some of the many beneficiaries include the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service, Cancer Council, Camp Quality, Red Cross, Red Kite, State Emergency Service, Salvation Army, World Vision, the Victorian Bush Fire Appeal, Heart Foundation and the Sydney Children's Hospital.

Two defibrillators are also now in Rathmines thanks to the butchers, along with free courses on how to uses them.

"It's all about being more than a business, and a part of the community," Stephen said.