June was an exceptionally busy month at the Trust, starting with the wonderfully successful ‘Bermuda in Bloom’ fundraising gala at Orange Valley, and ending with our annual Heritage Awards and Annual General Meeting at Verdmont. You can read more about these lovely events below - congratulations and thanks are due to so many people involved!

The AGM on 20 June saw a changing of the guard on the Trust’s Council. Alana Anderson stepped down as President after an extended seven-year term. Former Vice President Mark Orchard has taken on the mantle of President, while Michael Leverock steps up as Vice President.

Left to right: Mark Orchard, Alana Anderson, Michael Leverock

On behalf of the Council, Mark Orchard thanked Alana for her exceptional service and presented her with Honorary Life Membership. Alana has so far given 20 years of service to the Trust. She started volunteering in 2004 when she was fresh back from college in her early 20’s, first on the Fundraising and Finance Committees and from 2008 on the Council. Important milestones under her leadership included the 2018 International Conference of National Trusts held in Bermuda, amendments to the Bermuda National Trust Act in 2021, and in 2023 the adoption of the new BNT 5-year strategic plan. She kept the Trust on track during some difficult periods without an executive director at the helm and through the dark days of Covid.

Alana has a been a great support to me personally over the past three years as Executive Director and I am very grateful for her advice and guidance. I hope all members will join me in wishing Mark a warm welcome as President! 

Download the 2023 Annual Report

Karen Border

Executive Director

Our 2024 gala dinner ‘Bermuda in Bloom’, held on Saturday 8 June, was an extraordinary success, with over 300 guests enjoying a wonderful evening in the gardens of John Cox's home, Orange Valley. Guests enjoyed welcome cocktails provided by Bacardi, savoured a delicious meal prepared by Fourways, and danced the night away to the fabulous tunes of the Wall Street Band.

Congratulations and thanks to the hard-working committee who organised the event: Mariette Savoie, Syrine Rajeh, Tiffany Banner, Katryn Smith, Robin Mayor, Diana Antonition, Dörte Horsfield, and Jordan Smith. Thanks also to Mark Orchard who was our MC for the evening, and Raj Tolaram who was a marvelously entertaining auctioneer, raising a record-breaking amount!

We are most grateful to everyone who attended and supported the event, including the table sponsors, generous donors of the live and silent auction items, and our dedicated volunteers who helped with the decorations. And a special thank you to our kind host, John Cox!

The BNT Annual Heritage Awards took place at Verdmont Museum on Thursday, 20 June where BNT President, Alana Anderson, and Junior Minister of Culture, Kim Swan, presented the trophies and certificates.

The awards, which are kindly sponsored by Butterfield & Vallis, recognise individuals, organisations, groups and schools that have worked to protect and promote Bermuda’s natural and cultural heritage or whose work has enhanced Bermuda's heritage awareness or understanding. Awards for Service to the Trust were also presented.

Service to the Trust

The Palmetto Award – the Trust’s highest honour – was presented to Mariette Savoie for exceptional service to the Trust since 2009 as a member of the Council, Finance Committee and Governance Committee, and as chair of the Fundraising Dinner Committee for three very successful years.

John Cox received the President’s Award for decades of support for BNT in many ways, including volunteering at Verdmont, holding ghost story-telling events, opening his historic home and gardens for tour groups and for hosting the 2024 gala dinner for over 300 people at his property Orange Valley.

Mariette Savoie with the Silver Palmetto Award presented to her at the gala dinner.

Honorary life memberships were awarded to Alana Anderson, Beryl Bartlett, Tiffany Banner, and Linda O’Shea for exceptional service to the Trust. Peter Frith was awarded a Volunteer Service Award for his dedicated volunteering for Trust Museums.



BNT staff Myles Darrell, Lauren Simons, Jordan Smith and Anna Stevenson were recognised for five years of commitment to the Trust.

Beryl Bartlett (centre) was awarded Honorary Life Membership.

Tiffany Banner, right, received her Honorary Life Membership at Waterville.

Heritage Awards

Diana Chudleigh was awarded the DeForest Trimingham Awareness Award for her ‘History of a House’ book series on four important BNT buildings – Waterville, Verdmont, Tucker House and Globe Museum. The Globe book was published early in 2024, completing the series which tells the stories of the properties and the people who lived and worked in them.

The Bermudiana Award for Natural Heritage Impact went to the Bermuda Zoological Society for their Micro Forest project. Certificates were also presented to Patrick Cooper and Steven DeSilva of the Corporation of Hamilton for the creation of Donleigh Park tree farm, and Christ Church, Warwick for adopting environmentally friendly landscape methods in the church grounds.

The Cultural Heritage Impact Award went to the Department of Culture for their long-running Cultural Apprenticeship Programme that pairs tradition-bearers with young people interested in learning practical skills and knowledge of aspects of Bermuda’s cultural heritage.

The Young Heritage Leadership Award, presented to a young person in recognition of their outstanding contribution to Bermuda’s cultural heritage, went to Xander Cook for commitment to Bermuda archaeology. Xander, 26, who is working towards his doctorate, has worked on a number of local archaeology projects, including with Dr Michael Jarvis on the Smith’s Island dig for several summers.

Cultural Heritage Award certificates were presented to Manuel Lopes for restoring old Bermuda carriages; the Friends of St Peter’s Church for the restoration of the church clock; Cecille Snaith-Simmons for researching and writing many articles on cultural heritage topics; and Holy Trinity Church for the thoughtful celebration of its 400th anniversary.

There were two awards for restorations or renovations of historic buildings. Guy and Annabel Cooper, Geoff Parker (architect) and F. Lewis Maintenance were commended for the sensitive renovation of Grade 2 listed ‘Southcote’ in Paget. Butterfield Bank was recognised for the thoughtful renovation of the historic Front Street banking centre to its 1923 design, for the building’s 100th anniversary.

Read more about the 2024 Annual Award winners.

Diana Chudleigh was presented the DeForest Trimingham Awareness Award.

Xander Cook won the Young Heritage Leadership Award.

Cecille Snaith-Simmons won an award for her many articles on heritage topics.

John Cox was presented with the President's Award.

Give biodiversity a chance

Last month a group of Somerfield Academy students put their heads together and got hands-on to address a serious environmental concern. The prevalence of the turtles known as Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) is having a disastrous effect on biodiversity across Bermuda’s wetlands, and they decided to do something about it. They put a plan together to start trapping these devastating menaces. 

Red-eared Slider terrapins are adaptable, living in fresh and brackish water, and can be seen basking in the sun on the banks of ponds across Bermuda. They have been observed crushing bird eggs and even eating chicks. In fact, they eat just about anything including insect predators, and as a result are contributing to infestations of mosquitos. It’s no surprise that the turtles have negatively impacted our endemic Bermuda Killifish (Fundulus bermudae) which is on the ICUN Red list as endangered.

Red-eared Sliders have no predators in Bermuda, so without human intervention their populations will continue to increase, and our ponds will continue to suffer. Humans introduced the problem – albeit unwittingly – and we need to act to solve it. Please don’t feed these turtles, they already have more advantages than most species. If you have the opportunity to catch one, consider taking it to the vet or to the Aquarium to be put down. Let’s give biodiversity a chance and stop these invasive predators wherever possible.

The Somersfield team has not eradicated the problem, but what they have achieved is to inspire and educate their peers, parents and friends to think and act differently. Their leadership in these first steps is impressive.

Sad to say, it’s not just a Bermuda problem: these turtles are on the world’s “100 most invasive species list” devastating pond ecology globally.

Somersfield students (Aaron Lee, Maxwell DeCouto, Avyukt Jain and Sebastian White) presenting their findings and sharing their accomplishments from the work they did to lower the population of invasive terrapin in Bermuda. 

Island Treasure Chests

Bermuda cedar chests belonging to generations of two Bermudian families are now on display at Waterville. During a recent family reunion, Toni Darrell Moutray and her family visited the historic chest previously restored by Bermudian Andre Hubbard that she and her husband Dick generously repatriated to Bermuda from Canada.

Before their own move overseas, Mark and Tina Nash passed on a Bermuda cedar chest belonging to the Ingham family which once enslaved Mary Prince. This chest was restored by the late Fred Phillips and now stands near a mantle he also restored in the Waterville drawing room. Besides the cedar chest, the Nashes also donated porcelain, glassware, maps and books to the Trust, including two cheese moulds (pictured).



Come see these provenance-rich pieces of Bermuda cedar at our headquarters in Paget, alongside the Trimingham family Bermuda cedar chest at their onetime property. 

Toni Darrell Moutray with the Darrell chest.

Mark & Tina Nash 

Labour of Love

This summer’s Smith’s Island Archaeology Project (SIAP) dig has come to an end. You can check out their exciting progress on the project blog and look out soon for an article about SIAP by Andrew Lawler with photos by Bermudian photographer Nicola Muirhead in Smithsonian Magazine!

The work of the archaeology lab team in the Globe’s cellar was made a little cooler this summer thanks to the generosity of Annette and Adrian Cook, who purchased a new industrial dehumidifier for the space.

Cultural Heritage Calls

Trust Museums need you! Can you help at Verdmont or Globe Museum, especially on Saturdays or Sundays? Covering the weekend is especially important so that we are open for locals as well as for our overseas visitors. Buddy up by volunteering with a friend! Please contact our Museums Manager chris.davies@bnt.bm if you can help.

And another reminder that researchers from the Heritage for Global Challenges Research Centre will be returning to St. George’s in late July to continue the Bermuda component of their transnational heritage study. Please spread the word that we are looking for east enders to join focus groups on 24 and 27 July at Globe Museum.  Anyone interested should contact charlotte.andrews@bnt.bm.

Bob and Jean Flath volunteer at Verdmont.

As another academic year comes to a close, it is good to reflect on a busy twelve months for our heritage education programme. We have provided learning to every government primary school on the island, as well as many private schools and special schools: a total of 174 field trips, as well as class-based lessons. Topics covered included settlement, enslavement, birds, habitats, forts, mangroves and archaeology amongst others. It has been wonderful to once again use Paget Marsh boardwalk as a teaching environment! 

We are looking forward to providing fun and learning through our fully-booked summer camps, starting with Climate Change Agents, where we are exploring Sherwin Nature Reserve, linking up via Zoom with the Bahamas National Trust to learn about primaeval forests, visiting BeSolar to learn about solar power, and doing a plastics clean up at Grape Bay with the support of KBB.

2025 Calendar

Natural Treasures: Bermuda's Flora and Fauna

The BNT 2025 Flora and Fauna Calendar Photo Contest has come to an end, and we are excited to announce the winner. In December last year we asked local photographers to submit photos featuring Bermuda Architecture themes for our next annual calendar. We were delighted to receive over 400 images! Through a rigorous voting process 58 images were selected to be featured in the calendar and the People’s Choice photo was selected by the public.

The winner of the people's choice award is Laurie Zuill for her beautiful image of a Cape May Warbler. Congratulations Laurie!

The 2025 calendar will be available for purchase soon. Stay tuned for updates!

Summer Camp Registration

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Museums' Opening Hours

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SAVE THE DATE: Bermuda National Trust Walkabout

Friday, 6 December 2024

UNESCO World Heritage Site, St George's

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