Lombard Odier, the private Swiss banking firm, is gearing up for its 200th anniversary by inviting young Bermudians to share in the celebrations.

President and chief executive officer, Bernard Rattray, and vice president Brenda Bridgewater have announced a special Art and Essay Competition for Bermuda's newly established middle schools, in which the entire winning class (and three teachers) will be given an all-expenses paid educational trip to Switzerland.

"Brenda was the one who came up with the idea -- you could say she is the mother of the project,'' says Mr. Rattray, "and I thought it would be a great way of marking our parent company's anniversary.'' Noting that the children will make a nine-day trip to Geneva, world headquarters of the world group of companies, Mr. Rattray said each Lombard Odier branch had been asked to come up with a community-minded project: "We wanted to involve the children of this country and to expose them to the culture of another country. I think many of them may have been to the US, but we thought it a wonderful opportunity for them to learn something of Europe.

We chose government middle schools because we had to limit the number of entrants and most 12 to 13-year olds would not usually be exposed to a trip of this kind. I would like to emphasise that this project is being fully supported by the Ministry of Education.

"All of our offices around the world,'' he adds, "have a professional interest in community affairs and, for us, education is a key factor as far as the future of Bermuda is concerned. International business here in general, is keen to help with scholarships and projects like this whenever and wherever possible.'' Five schools, involving 23 classes and 500 children, are entering the competition which, explains Mrs. Bridgewater, has been divided into three sections and will be judged by three independent judges.

"The theme is the children's overall impressions of Switzerland. The first item is an essay and teachers will select the best one to represent their class. There will be a team effort when each class creates a papier-mache model depicting a certain aspect of Switzerland -- this could be anything from mountains to Swiss cheese or cuckoo clocks! Finally, each class will submit the best three watercolour or pastel pictures -- again illustrating the students' perceptions of any aspect of Switzerland.'' Although the budget is more than sufficient to support the travelling expenses for almost 30 people, the relatively short time between announcing the winners and the travel date in June will make it difficult to raise further funds to subsidise the cost of accommodations, tours and so on. "So we have decided to hold a Celebration Raffle,'' explains Mrs. Bridgewater.

"It is a very special raffle in that there will only be 900 tickets sold, each one costing $100 each. We believe this will give participators a better-than-usual chance of winning a Peugeot 306 Cabriolet car (from Continental Motors Ltd), a ladies' or gents' Rolex watch (Crisson's Jewellers) or a return flight to London for two (British Airways). These companies have given extremely generous discounts for these prizes and we are very grateful.'' Although plans are yet to be finalised, it is hoped there will be several excursions including a tour of the historic old quarter of Geneva, a trip to the Swiss Alps, a cruise on Lake Geneva, a tour round the Gruyere cheese factory and, possibly, a visit to see famous Mont Blanc, just over the French border in Chamonix.

Lombard Odier Group, whose prime business is international asset management, was the first foreign company, in 1992, to be issued a trust licence to operate in Bermuda. "We established an office here as long ago as 1976 -- which is when Brenda joined the company,'' explains Mr. Rattray who first came to Bermuda in 1991 and joined Lombard Odier in 1996. "We employ 18 people here, and are still growing. I must say,'' he adds, "it's very interesting to live in a country that is so small, but important in terms of international business!'' The announcement of the winning class and the draw for the raffle will be held at the same time, on Tuesday, March 31, at 3 p.m. at City Hall. Raffle tickets are available from Crissons' Hamilton locations.