The Bermuda flag recently had to be carried by a non-Bermudian at a major Caribbean festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia despite hundreds of Bermudian students living in the area.

This crushed St. Mary's University student Ebony Fray, and she vowed that the next Carabanza event would be different. She and fellow university student, Omar Lodge, are trying to revive the Bermuda Triangle society in Halifax, an organisation that caters to Bermuda students in the area.

On Saturday, July 21 they are holding a trash-a-thon in St. David's starting at noon to raise money for the society that fell into inactivity in recent years. They are urging all Halifax university students, particularly St. Mary's students, to come out and support them.

"The Bermuda Triangle Society was established in 1995 at St. Mary's University," said Mr. Lodge who is in his second year of a global business management programme. He graduated from CedarBridge Academy in 2004. "It was started to promote cultural and social events for Bermudians living and studying in Halifax."

Mr. Lodge said previously Bermudians had taken part in a Caribbean Society at the university, but found that it wasn't entirely meeting their needs.

"The Bermuda Triangle Society was created to promote more Bermudian things," said Mr. Lodge. "Many times Bermudians are stereotyped as being from the Caribbean, because we are an island, but geographically we are not part of the Caribbean. We also have things that are unique to us that the Caribbean doesn't have and vice versa. That is why it was started."

That said, they would still like to see Bermudians take part in the annual Carabanza affair. Rebuilding the Bermuda Triangle Society and strengthening the Bermuda student community in Halifax would make this possible.

The society's most popular event is an annual ski trip, where many Bermudian students experience snow for the first time. The society also hosts parties, pub crawls and Bermuda-centric events like kite flying.

"The Bermuda Triangle Society is not exclusively for Bermudian students, although that is our majority following," said Miss Fray who graduated from the Berkeley Institute in 2004. She is going into her last year of a marketing programme. "It is extended to anyone with an interest in Bermuda, and what Bermuda has to offer."

The society is currently in the process of updating their membership lists and gathering fresh members.

"We are looking to revamp it and put in a good infrastructure so that it will be easier for the next person to take over," she said. "We want people who would like to step up to the plate and take it on."

Mr. Lodge said one of the benefits of being a part of the Bermuda Society was that you could hold a position.

"This looks good on your resumé and looks good as school participation," he said. "If you are an aspiring accountant, then we have a position as a treasurer. If you want to be an entrepreneur or leader, you could be president or vice president. If you like organising and managing you can do project management."

However, he said, the top three positions, president, vice-president and treasurer have to be held by St. Mary's University students, because the organisation depends on partial funding from the St. Mary's student society. Other positions are open to students from other universities in Halifax.

Money raised at Saturday's trash-a-thon will go towards Bermuda Triangle Society events.

"As a college student, no one has $50 to give up for a party or to go somewhere," said Mr. Lodge. "The little bit of work we put in now will do a lot of benefit when we are in university."

They also urged Bermudians just entering college in Halifax in the fall, to contact them with any questions or concerns.

He said it was estimated that 380 Bermudians were studying in Halifax universities such as Dalhousie, St. Mary's and Mount St. Vincent, among others.

"We would urge students not to be turned off by being in a place with so many Bermudians," he said. "We are there to help. We are open to suggestions, but you can only be heard if you speak."

He said it was good to have a large Bermudian student community in the area, but he urged new students not to shut themselves off from new cultural experiences. "We are all there to support each other, but we need to become cultured and engaged in the Canadian culture," he said. "I enjoy meeting and learning about new cultures. I was an exchange student in Brazil for a year which allowed me to open up and meet people from all over the world."

Miss Fray said many of the separations that existed between students in Bermuda, fell away once they went abroad to school.

"It is all in how you look at it," she said. "In Bermuda we have a lot of segregation issues based on what school you go to and what part of the Island you live in. When we get to a place like Halifax, it is no more 'I am from town and you're from country', it is 'I am a Bermudian and we are all one people'. We only faced those challenges in Bermuda, never in Canada."

For information about the upcoming trash-a-thon on July 21, telephone Mr. Lodge at 332-5600 or 331-5981. Pledge sheets are available, but Mr. Lodge urged people not to give money to anyone with a pledge sheet that was a photocopy. All official pledge sheets are on coloured paper.

Mr. Lodge, Miss Fray and the Bermuda Triangle Society are also on Facebook website www.facebook.com in groups under Bermuda Triangle Society(Halifax). Their St. Mary's e-mails are gomar.lodge@smu.ca or ebony.Fray@smu.ca.