Blechynden said she was speechless, but extremely honoured to receive the volunteer of the year and the outstanding service awards for her dedication to her club and association.
“It was an honour – and volunteering is so important,” she said.
“Sometimes it can be a thankless task but we do it because we love it, we enjoy it but our volunteers also need to be respected.”
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READ NOWBlechynden has been a member of the Red Devils club since its inception in 1990-91 and started volunteering to help grow the sport in the Rockingham region.
She is the secretary of the Rockingham City and Districts Softball Association and is the vice-resident of the Red Devils committee.
“People behind the scenes give a lot of their time, effort and energy to make sports happen,” she said.
“I can afford my time to give back and keep the sport growing because I want to keep softball growing in Rockingham to get bigger and better and to keep it going.”
She said the Red Devils had experienced a surge in membership for its women’s, men’s and junior teams over the past 12 months, with players’ ages ranging from 6-60.
“It’s all about having fun and we’ve got five different grades for women and two for men,” she said.
She said the association was going to approach the City of Rockingham to install more lights on the Lark Hill grounds to enable more night games to be played.
As well as playing, Blechynden also enjoys umpiring and coaching.