| Leap Year 1960 |
It's
Leap Year Day in east L.A., Raenell Dawn born
today. |
| Leap Year 1964 |
Aw,
my 1st Birthday! I don't know it yet,
but by the fourth year of my life I am
only 1 in Leap
Years! |
| Leap Year 1968 |
It's
my 2nd Birthday! The concept of birthdays become clear to
my young self, as my
family celebrates the birthdays
of 2 of my three younger sisters; Cindy February 25,
and
Debbie February 6, annually, in February. Our
Mom put our names on the calendar
in the box
that coincided with the day we were born. On the 25th was written "Cindy"
and on
the 6th, "Debbie". In off years my
name was in an empty box after the box with
a
28 in it. I jokingly explain to people that I suffer from EBS; Empty Box Syndrome.
Think
about it, come one! ;o) It's confusing. :o) |
| Leap Year 1972 |
It's
my 3rd Birthday! Fascination in space and
astronomy answer some of my questions,
like; "Why have
I only had 3 Birthdays when I've been on the
planet 12 years?" O.K., I
get it...I
think... My parents would tell me that
sometimes I acted my "real" age. |
| Leap Year 1976 |
It's
my 4th Birthday! Sweet 16 turns 4!!!! I was on the city bus
at age 16/4, when an old
man sat next to me and asked, out
of the blue, when my birthday was. "February
29th,
Leap Year Day" I told him. He
looked me straight in the eyes, deep, and told me I
was very special. What a trip. I have learned
through meeting other Leap Day Babies,
that
they have been told the same thing. Now I am
not saying we are the only special
people on
the planet. It's just nice to run into those
who see it that way rather than the
usual
majority who say "Oh you poor thing! You
don't get a birthday?" Plus, there was
something about this old guy. Maybe he knew
I'd be on a mission to get Leap Year Day
recognized for what it is. We've yet to see..... |
| Leap Year 1980 |
It's
my 5th Birthday! "Sun Up San Diego"
morning TV program interview inspires me to
search for
other Leap Day Babies. |
| Leap Year 1984 |
It's
my 6th Birthday! Friends in L.A. throw me a
surprise birthday party. My 4-year
effort to
locate other Leap Day Babies
reveals only one: a paternal third cousin,
Christopher. That was really cool. |
Leap Year 1988
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Click image to
view larger. |
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It's
my 7th Birthday! Determined to share Leap
Year Day with other Leap Day Babies,
I
expanded my search to mass media. I lived in Los
Angeles, and four top radio
interviews gave me
names and numbers to 21 Leap Day Babies, four
of which attend
my party, two boys and two
girls. Progress is being made and I am excited.
I started
my own Birthday Club
- Leap Year Babies Limited. |
| Leap Year 1992
|
It's
my 8th Birthday! I live in the Pacific
Northwest now. Mass media was so
successful,
I tried it again in the
Northwest. KUBE radio and the Space Needle,
both in Seattle, WA,
threw a birthday party
for Leap Day Babies and their families, at the
Space Needle. I was
set up at a special table to sign up all the
Leap Day Babies. There were 30 Leapies that
attended that day. Several of us were interviewed
on KUBE radio and 3 TV news stations.
It was a blast! If any of you reading this are
from that party and/or you have group
pictures,
please contact me. I'd love to hear from you
again and I'd love to have a copy of that
group
photo to post here on the site. Thanks! Email
me here.
|
Part of the group shot
taken by KUBE radio. |
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Being
interviewed by one
of the news stations. |
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images to view larger. |
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Leap Year 1996
|
It's
my 9th Birthday! I live in Keizer,
Oregon. I was on two local TV shows;
"AM Northwest"
in the morning, live,
with several other Leap Day Babies, including
an 84 year old gentleman
who turned 21 in Leap
Years! And a taped interview from my home
with a few other Leap Day
Babies, that aired
that night on Portland's "Good
Evening". Turning 9 this year, I spoke to a
classroom of 9 year old 3rd graders
at the school where I'm a Mentor to a little
girl named
Emily, who also turned 9 this year. We had fun
being 9 together. I am online now, and
continue to spread Leap
Day Awareness via the Internet.
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images to view larger. |
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| Special
Year... |
(In
1997 I met up with Leap Day Baby Peter
Brouwer. He had 38 members in his club and
I had 74 members in
mine. We merged to become
The Honor Society of Leap Day Babies
with the
website at
www.LeapYearDay.com/hr.
We now have thousands of members from
all
over the world.) |
Leap Year 2000
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Click image to
view larger. |
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I
turned 10...again! Leap Year 2000 was great! The Honor Society of Leap Day
Babies was
mentioned in hundreds of newspapers
worldwide. Peter and I conducted dozens
of radio
interviews all across the USA and
Canada. There were Leap Day Baby Birthday
Parties
all over the world.
The Leap Year Book
hit the streets in January and The Honor
Society is mentioned
in it starting on page 60
(the year I was born) with a picture of me on page 61!
I'm pretty
excited about
that one!
The first ever Leap Day Baby Dolls
were available too. They are LeapAnne and
LeapErick.
They are SO cute you just have to
see them.
The Ham Radio Special Event
celebrated Leap Year Day by contacting Leap
Day Babies
who were also Ham Radio Operators.
I am a LeapyHam: K7FEB, and I participated in the
event.
There was a small party that evening in Salem
where I, and 6 other Leap Day Babies
shared our birthday with family and friends.
Leap Year 2000 was an
exciting year.
|
| Leap
Year 2004 |
I
had my 11th birthday party at the Build-A-Bear
Workshop in Portland, OR. I took the 7 girls
I Mentor and a friend from Gladstone was there
too. My friend from Silverton took pictures
for
me. The Girls and I all built Leap Day Baby
Bears. It was great fun. Even at our ages 11 -
16.
Yes, I turned 11 this year so the ages were 11
to 16. We each gave our bears a Leapified
name; mine is Leapton Von Leap. The
Build-A-Bear Workshop had special
commemorative
birth certificates just for Leap Day. They are
very cool.The
Build-A-Bear Workshop is international, but
all their stores in the USA took part in the
special Leap Day cele-bear-ation they had. The
whole weekend, the 28th and 29th, they
celebrated Leap Year Day. It was pretty cool.
And I had a lot of fun sharing the experience
with The Girls that I Mentor, Emily, Sarah,
Molly, Ashley, Tristina, Samantha, Brittany.
We
all had a great time celebrating my 11th
birthday, and Leap Day in general.
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