Vaughn found fellow jumpers (as they call themselves) on Facebook a few years ago. They bond online and decide to plan a meet-up for their birthday.
They agreed to a cruise, and in February 2020, 78 jumping pups gathered for a four-night trip to the Bahamas. They range in age from 4 to about 80 years old and come from 33 states and 10 countries.
“It was really phenomenal,” Vaughn said. “Until that cruise, I had never met anyone born in a leap year.”
It was so great that they did it again four years later.
A leap year is an extra day in February every four years. This is because it takes the Earth a little more than 365 days a year to orbit the sun.
Currently, approximately 5 million people around the world are born on Leap Day. For many of them, February 29th marks the end.
Beth Olkers is planning to party in New York with the other Lieblings. In fact, this day is her girlfriend’s 15th birthday and also her 8th wedding anniversary if you don’t count the years in between.
“For some strange reason, we also decided to get married on February 29th,” said Olkers, 59, who was born February 29, 1964 and married on the same day in 1992.
“My favorite line when my husband is asked something unique about himself is that we legally married on my wife’s seventh birthday,” she said.
The couple, who live in Phoenix and have two adult children, usually plan to go on an adventure trip or have a big celebration that day.
“We do something really fun every year, especially since today is our anniversary,” Olkers said.
Myra Manley Walker has big plans for her birthday this year. She is 64 years old and celebrating her sweet 16th.
“I’m going out to dinner with a bunch of friends and family,” said Manley Walker of Hillsboro, Georgia. “Actually, when I turned 16, my girlfriend’s mother made me go to the opera, and I was so angry. This was going to be a good thing. No one wanted me to do something I didn’t want to do. I’m not going to force it.”
But this birthday will be bittersweet for Manly Walker, as she lost her eldest sister to cancer just before the last Leap Day. Her sister Molly was born on February 26th, and we celebrated her birthday together on all but leap years.
“She was everything,” Manley Walker said of his sister. “She always took care of me.”
Leap Day is also important to another group of siblings: Harris, Elizabeth and Andrew Rowe.
They are spontaneous triplets, meaning they were conceived without undergoing fertility treatment, and their mother Kelly Rowe nursed them to term (Almost all higher multiples are born prematurely).
They were born on Leap Day without medical intervention.
“That’s when they arrived,” said Kelly Rowe of Charleston, South Carolina.
of row triplets People who will be 20 years old this year, and people who will be 5 years old in a leap year. Lowe said that when she was a child, “we would celebrate three days in a row,” adding that each child had a designated day. However, in leap years, they celebrate together on the 29th.
“They think it’s a lot of fun. They like something a little different,” Lowe said.
Judy Shaver Pickett and her daughter Heather have another breakthrough family story. Shaver Pickett was born in Lockport, New York on February 29, 1952, and exactly 24 years later, by Leap Day, she gave birth to her first child.
“It was a leap year baby and then having a baby was a big deal,” Shaver Pickett said, adding that Heather’s birth was “a leap year baby.” Featured in local paper And it was picked up by the Associated Press. “Everyone in her family wanted her to be there around my birthday.”
Shaver Pickett didn’t know this was a leap year until a few weeks before giving birth to her daughter, so she never thought it was a possibility.
“She was born on my birthday, and she weighed just one pound less than me,” Shaver Pickett said. “Everyone was just excited.”
In non-leap years, mothers and daughters celebrate together on the 28th. Shaver Pickett said their bond grew stronger after sharing an unusual birthday. Shaver Pickett of Wingate, North Carolina, plans to visit his daughter in Wilmington, North Carolina, this year for his family’s birthday dinner.
Leap year baby Karen Koh uses her birthday as an opportunity to do something positive for the world. It started eight years ago on her 40th birthday, on which day she threw a 10-year-old themed birthday party. Instead of her gift, she collected toys for children in need.
Mr Koh, 47, a marketing consultant, said: “I decided my birthday was a great cause to raise money for children.”
In her first year, she raised $14,000 for foster children in San Diego. children’s voices. Since then, every leap year, Coe has held a fundraiser for a similar cause.
“It’s a simple way to ask for a small donation, but it goes a long way,” she said, adding that she usually encourages people to donate according to their leap age. For example, when she turned 10 years old, many people donated her 10 dollars.
This year, Korr turned 12 years old. No child is hungry. Her plan for the upcoming leap year is to recruit allies to join her.
“What I want to work on is Get your leap year baby more involved” she said, adding that she also hopes to have her second bat mitzvah by the time she turns 13 next leap year.
Ethel Bonder is well past her teens, but she jokes that she’s almost 23 years old. This is the same age as her granddaughter Zoe.
But in reality, Mr. Bonder, who sells real estate in a small town just north of Pittsburgh, is almost 92 years old.
“I’m still here!” she said enthusiastically.
Ms. Bondar grew up tired of being born on Leap Day, she said.But as she grew up, she became Thank you for her unusual birthdayEspecially since she is now blessed by her family.
“This is a celebration,” Bondar said, adding that she plans to host a party on Thursday.
This year’s Leap Day is also an important day for Mary Forsyth, who will be celebrating her 25th birthday, which would actually be her 100th birthday.
“I’ve always felt young. I never felt old, and I still don’t feel old,” said Forsyth, who lives in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. Told.
Forsyth recently oklahoma centenarian — Tulsa nonprofit — and won an award From the city in honor of her birthday.
Her two children, 11 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren are planning to throw her a birthday party on Thursday. Forsyth said she can’t wait to celebrate her 25th Leap Day.
“It feels great,” she said.
correction
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Judy Shaver Pickett and her daughter were born 23 years apart. They were born 24 years apart. Story has been updated.
