Keith Honeyman

Keith Honeyman

Keith Honeyman Memorial Award

Keith Honeyman was a longtime member of the Victoria Ballroom Dance Society. Sadly, Keith passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in the fall of 2008.

Keith was born with a strong volunteer spirit, a spirit that impacted whatever he became involved in. In his early days, Keith was a founding member of Lions Club of Brandon Manitoba. After relocating to Victoria Keith regularly volunteered for Santa’s Anonymous, for community events such as “The Tall Ships” and as a driver for JazzFest.  When he joined our club in 1995, his volunteer spirit joined too. In addition to providing help wherever needed, Keith was the VBDS Treasurer, Chair of Dance Pacifica and longtime member of the Dance Committee.

Keith and Sue met through VBDS and they volunteered together for several years before finally tying the knot. Keith was an avid dancer but after a win at the Newcomer level at Snowball, he decided that a focus on Medal Test preparation and social dancing were more his cup of tea. Coached by Diane Gallagher, Keith and Sue completed their Bronze Medal, but sadly Keith passed before they could complete their Silver Medal Test. Sue described Keith as an outgoing gentle giant with a kind, generous heart who always thought the best of people.

Keith’s passing was a huge shock to the club. Over 200 people attended his funeral. After an appeal for contributions, and a generous response from VBDS members, the Board approved an award in Keith’s honour, to go to a long-standing VBDS member who has, over many years, made outstanding volunteer contributions to the Society, and to the development of ballroom dancing in the Victoria area. Do you know someone who deserves to be recognized for their contributions? Please nominate them by emailing: khma@vbds.org

2025 recipient of the Keith Honeyman Memorial Award

Thomas has been a VBDS volunteer member since before 2010. He was nominated for the KHM Award for his fifth consecutive year in 2025.
During Thomas’ 15+ years with VBDS, he served on the Board from 2016 to 2019 (often in dual positions) as Treasurer, VP and President. A significant contribution Thomas made as Treasurer was the implementation of rotating GICs, which created a new annual income stream of several thousand dollars per year. This practice continues to this day. Similarly, Thomas advised on eliminating monthly rental of a secondary storage unit, saving another $4,000.00+ per year. These two decisions moved the club from running with a financial deficit to running “in the black”.
Thomas has also served on a variety of Committees over the years, many of which he continues to be involved in, including Chair of Governance Committee, Community Outreach Committee, Nominations Committee, Dance Committee, 30th Anniversary Committee and Dancing in the Square Committee.
Thomas steps up wherever needed, helping with set-up and take-down at monthly dances and community events, creating playlists, drawing up floor plans, managing the club mic/speaker system, attending as a demo dancer at many events over the years (including being part of the team in a 5-year running seniors’ centre program pre-pandemic). As well, Thomas helps out with many behind-the scenes tasks like printing needs for club promotion and helping with running to-and-from our storage unit to collect and return items. Thomas also began a name-tag initiative in 2024 providing name tags for members upon request.

Thank you for your many contributions to VBDS!

To read about our past recipients, Click on the links below.

Raymond was one of the original members of the club and he has a long history of volunteering. He was the administrator of our previous club website. He has served on the Nominations Committee. He has been and is a volunteer lead in classes and at practices. Going on for several years, Raymond has been and continues to be one of the DJ’s at our practices. That has also included writing the software that plays the music. Raymond currently serves on the Classes committee and recently took over as chair. He also serves on our Music committee. He participates in many discussions well outside of just the classes committee and he has a keen eye for detail, a quality those who maintain the website appreciate.

Michael’s volunteering began like so many, as a lead for solo follows in classes and practices. He got his first taste of organized volunteering when he helped out with Dance Pacifica in 2014. In 2015, past KHMA recipient, Robin Evans convinced Michael to join the Dancing for Seniors Demo, a group of VBDS members who performed for shut-ins at various assisted living facilities around Victoria. In 2021 President Lynne Jordon tapped him to join the board and work on setting up an online payment system for club events. That led to website maintenance, scheduling classes and venue bookings. Michael took over the presidency in October and in addition to managing almost all club related needs, commuted from Shawnigan Lake for any class that required a volunteer lead. As Covid restrictions gradually lifted Michael was able to reintroduce a form of social dancing by converting one practice a month into a dance. He has continued to volunteer on the Classes Committee and organized Dancing in the Square 2024.

Keith Honeyman Award presented to Brian Mason 2022Brian Mason was the recipient of the 2021/2022 Keith Honeyman Memorial Award.

Unfortunately Brian was unavailable to accept the award. Luckily Elvis was available and stepped in on Brian’s behalf.

Brian first became a VBDS member in 2011 and started volunteering in various roles shortly after joining. He met his beautiful wife Pauline at VBDS. They were engaged in April of 2013 at Nanaimo’s Island Fantasy Ball, and married in October of the same year. Sadly, Pauline passed away in the spring of 2019, but she had wanted Brian to keep dancing, so Brian rejoined the club later in the year, and also got back to volunteering.

Brian has coordinated and volunteered as a lead, at our Intro to Ballroom events and other outreach activities. Brian joined the board of directors in 2019 and took over the publicity and marketing portfolio. Brian became our newsletter editor and publisher in 2020 just as the pandemic got up to speed. His thoughtful and creative content was a critical factor in keeping our community together and informed. During the same time, he also took over managing and maintaining our website. He is our DVD librarian and is one of the players of music at our practices. Brian embodies the generous spirit that makes VBDS a community.

Robin has been the consummate volunteer for VBDS, and Victoria’s ballroom dance enthusiast for many years.

We could always count on Robin to take on a task or find a volunteer in the club who would get the job done. Robin is the ultimate volunteer recruiter – whether it was organizing a ballroom dance demonstration, finding hosts for a ballroom dance competition, greeting people or signing up greeters at VBDS practices, you could always count on Robin. For many new VBDS members, Robin would be one of the first people to introduce herself, and make sure they were welcomed.

Robin picked the cast, assistants and produced the ballroom dance demonstrations at senior’s residences after Angus McKnight retired.  She convinced, encouraged and cajoled many unwary VBDS dancers to dance outside their comfort zones and become entertainers.  She was script writer and worked with pretenders, the likes of Marilyn Munroe, Joe DiMaggio, the Beatles, Hot Lips Houlihan and many more. She ignited the memories of seniors and made them laugh until they cried.

Robin, this award is very well deserved.  Your efforts are truly appreciated!

VBDS is pleased to recognize and honour Bob Adams, the 2018/19 recipient of the Keith Honeyman Memorial Award. Bob, and his wife Roberta, have been members of VBDS since 1999 and first started volunteering by helping with demos, promotions and marketing.

In 2004, Bob joined the VBDS Board of Directors and served for well over a decade in almost every position, including president in 2008 and 2009. He also served on the Nominations, Governance, and Standards and Classes Committee, which he chaired for many years, and was coordinator of the Community Outreach program.

Bob continues to play an important role supporting numerous VBDS activities and committees including the Community Outreach and Governance Committees, and willingly shares his knowledge and advice on all matters VBDS, when called upon by current Board members. He’s a leader, strategic thinker, mentor and team player. And, his skills as a Master of Ceremonies are second to none! Congratulations, Bob and thank you for your contribution to VBDS over the past 20 years!

Neil Fleischmann was presented with the Keith Honeyman Memorial Award for this year at the VBDS Dance on Saturday night, April 22. The Citation for Neil read out at the presentation notes that Neil joined VBDS in 1996, and that since then, he has been not only an active member, but an active leader in the Society. He and his wife Carmen met at VBDS NC II classes, and have since become active Ballroom competitors as well activists in the club: Neil has been President more times than anyone else; he has served on the Board and on the Standards & Classes Committee longer than anyone else; he has been Membership Coordinator for the club more times than anyone else; and, if there is any task that has needed to be done in all that time, Neil has stepped in to pick it up, and Carmen has been there to support him. To quote Sue Wenman, a former President of VBDS who is Keith’s widow;

“Neil has worked tirelessly in all his many different roles over these many years to promote the club, its activities and ballroom dancing”.  None of us could imagine anyone more qualified than he to receive this award.

gary and NancyGary and Nancy Leitch were jointly presented with the 2015 Keith Honeyman Memorial Award in recognition and appreciation of their many years of selfless volunteer service in support of the Victoria Ballroom Dance Society, and of ballroom dancing in our community.

Gary served as Treasurer of the VBDS for three years. He was Chair of the Dance Pacifica Committee for three years, where he did a superb job in this onerous position. He also took on being Chair of the VBDS Website Renewal Committee, updating both the “look” and the functionality of the website at a critical time in the history of our club. Prior to that he had served as Chair of Promotions & Marketing Committee for almost a year, relinquishing that position, because of the critical importance and substantial demands of reorganizing the Society’s books and financial reporting systems.

The spouse of every VBDS Director makes many sacrifices throughout the period when their partner is serving as Director on the VBDS Board. For that we must express appreciation to all those who, largely unrecognized, support the Society in this crucial way. But Nancy Leitch was much, much more than just a supportive partner for Gary in his years as a Director – she was actively working and serving in the background throughout, foremost as Bookkeeper for the Society in support of Gary’s role as Treasurer, working to institute a regular quarterly financial reporting system; then putting in countless hours in the background to ensure all the administrative tasks required to run a Competitive Ball got done, including serving as Volunteer Coordinator.

Eric JenkinsEric’s many contributions include 3 terms as an elected president and one half-term when he quickly stepped in to fill an unexpected vacancy. It is this willingness to step forward and do whatever is necessary for the sake of the club that makes such a difference for a volunteer organization such as ours and why Eric is so deserving of the award.

James has always brought an inspiring level of dedication and warmth to everything he takes part in. He not only danced endlessly at practices and events with all the solo follows, but also gave his time generously as a volunteer lead in many classes. His kindness and enthusiasm shone through during every Care Home demonstration—he embraced even the quirkiest costumes with good humour and grace. When Christine K. organized the Bay Centre demos, he was one of the first to step forward, always eager to help and fully committed. James’s spirit, reliability, and genuine joy in contributing made every experience richer for all of us.

ron-smailesRon Smailes is presented the award for his long time contribution to the Victoria Ballroom Dance Society.  He is a natural dancer whose contagious enthusiasm and light-hearted fun has buoyed many a practice, class or workshop.  His talents away from the dance floor are equally impressive and are evidenced in the Reg Wiz software for registration which he designed and build, as well as the engineering marvel of  2 chandeliers used at special VBDS events which he designed and built.  Ron has served on the board and is an extraordinary volunteer who can be counted upon to dance at promotions, act as Master of Ceremonies, lead a line dance, and generally pitch-in whenever and wherever needed.

Alan TaylorAlan Taylor was a founding member of the Victoria Ballroom Dance Society, and was instrumental in establishing the Society – crafting the first Constitution, working on incorporation, and serving as the Society’s first President. He continues to be a valuable source of advice and historical material.

Many thanks for your guidance and many years of service.

Ron HallThe second recipients of the annual Keith Honeyman Award were Ron and Joyce Hall, long-time members and consistent volunteers.

They have spent countless hours dealing with the music and library at our practices.
Many thanks for your abundance of help!

The first recipients of the annual Keith Honeyman Award were Rennie and Roman Yue, original members of the VBDS and perennial volunteers in a variety of roles to this day. Thank you, Rennie and Roman, from all your fellow members.