APPLETON — Chuck and Kathy Kamp looked knowingly into each other's eyes with the same instinctive thought in mind.

Letters on a countertop in their home welcomed the Appleton couple to the world of AARP (American Associated of Retired Persons), but career rejuvenation, not retirement ruled the day.

So the Kamps took the plunge to enter the next phase in their lives.

Chuck Kamp tendered his resignation as general manager of Valley Transit to take a similar job for Madison Metro Transit system.

Kathy gave notice she plans to step down as executive director of the Housing Partnership of the Fox Cities to become deputy director of the Wisconsin Partnership for Housing Development in Madison.

"It's like jumping into cold water. You hold hands and in you go," Chuck Kamp said.

The couple are putting their business and personal affairs in order before departing the Fox Cities this fall.

"Sometimes when things are going well it's time to look around to see if it is time for a change," Chuck Kamp said. "I've been in Appleton for 15 years and this is a fantastic place, yet there is something invigorating for a person like me, and candidly for an organization like Valley Transit, to look for a change."

Kathy Kamp, executive director of the Housing Partnership for the past decade, said she will miss the people she works with and serves through the grass-roots Housing Partnership, but looks forward to making affordable housing a reality for people from a state perspective.

"It won't be that much different than the housing development work I do here," Kathy Kamp said. "I will have the added opportunity to work with special needs housing for people with accessibility issues, which I have an interest in, but haven't been able to do here."

Dick Kendall, a member of the Fox Cities Transit Authority, said the couple share an interest in serving the needs of low- to middle-income people.

"These are two people with hearts of gold," Kendall said. "They are key people in the Fox Cities who have walked the talk. We are losers in this deal."

Chuck Kamp said it was Kendall's late son, Kevin, a devoted bicycle rider, who inspired him to push for the recent addition of bicycle racks to Valley Transit buses.

"I learned from Kevin. It (adding bicycle racks to buses) was a small, but important example of helping people," he said.

Kevin Kendall and the Kamps also shared another passion — living life without television.

"Kathy and I decided years ago not to have a television on in the house," Chuck Kamp said. "It's been a good thing that's allowed us to do more reading and have more conversations."

Moving to Madison will not change the no-television habit, Kamp said.

"We will be too busy learning about our new community," he said. But the couple will not forget the Fox Cities.

Kathy Kamp will remain involved in major projects initiated during her term as Housing Partnership director, including the $3.2 million conversion of the former Wire Works factory in central Appleton to 25 units of low- to moderate-income housing.

"There is so much demand for affordable housing. It's very difficult to meet that demand, but it's one our community has met to a certain degree," Kathy Kamp said. "I've loved every minute I've spent on my job here. It's great when you see successes and it's great to have a job that gives people a chance to succeed."

In her new job, Kamp expects to maintain ties to the Fox Cities.

"The Wisconsin Partnership for Housing does provide technical expertise to the local Housing Partnership. I've worked with them for years. In fact they helped in growing the Fox Cities agency with expertise they provided," Kathy Kamp said.

For Chuck Kamp, the separation promises to be more definite except for one twist, the development of regional transit authorities that could bring the Fox Cities and Madison transit boundaries closer in the future.