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Leap Year Birthdays Four Years in the Making

Not a day early or late, employees will mark actual celebration on Feb. 29

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In this photo from 1985, Michelle Crouch celebrates her first birthday - but not on a leap year. Photo courtesy of Michelle Crouch.

Michelle Crouch is set to celebrate her 32nd birthday today.

Or, depending on interpretation, she’ll be turning 8.

Crouch, one of about 200,000 Americans born on Leap Day (Feb. 29), will get the chance to observe her official birthday instead of shifting the date to Feb. 28 or March 1, as she typically does. It’s an opportunity that comes around once every four years as calendars add an extra day to accommodate the Earth’s orbit around the sun.

“In a way, it almost puts pressure on it because it better be a good birthday, otherwise I won’t have another chance for four years,” said Crouch, senior research analyst with the Office of Development. “I normally don’t do anything much different than any other birthday, but it does feel a little more special.”

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Michelle Crouch poses with son, Graham. Photo courtesy of Michelle Crouch.

The chances of being born on a Leap Day is 1 in 1,461. According to Duke Human Resources, 24 out of nearly 36,000 university and health system employees have birthdays on Feb. 29.

Crouch, who recognizes her birthday on Feb. 28 during non-leap years, expects a low-key birthday with family this week. One year does stands out, however. On her 16th birthday, she received flowers. Being a teenager, she had hoped they were from a secret admirer, but instead were sent by a friend’s grandmother.

“My friend was born on Feb. 28, so we’d have joint birthday parties some years,” she said.

Even if they may seem more exciting to non Leap Day babies, a Feb. 29 birthday feels like any other day to some. 

Nicola Quick, a postdoctoral associate at the Duke Marine Lab, will be turning 40.

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Nicola Quick will celebrate her Leap Day birthday with family this year, including daughters Ellie and Natalie, seen here in a photo in May 2015. Photo courtesy of Nicola Quick.

“When I was younger, I’d celebrate for a whole week,” Quick recalled. “My husband feels he should throw me a big party this year, but when you’re used to not having the day for your actual birthday, you don’t think about it like that.”

Apparently Facebook doesn’t, either. Quick noted that last year friends wrote to her after they never received notifications for her birthday. “So in social media terms, you disappear on non-leap years,” she said. 

They won’t forget this year, however, as Quick said she’d mark another year over drinks with friends.

Similar plans are in store for Bernd Horn, who plans to celebrate birthday No. 48 by having a nice dinner with his wife. Most years, Horn has marked the occasion on Feb. 28. 

“I remember when I was turning 28 or 29, my friends wanted to take me to Chuck E. Cheese’s because I was still ‘7 years old’ at the time,” said Horn, a developer with Duke Health Technology Solutions. “We went to downtown Raleigh instead.”

Horn said his birthdays growing up were never too exciting – Leap Day or not – but did confuse staff at a DMV once when he went in to renew his license. 

“I went through the line and they printed out a card to put information into the computer, but they marked the day of my real birthday for a year that wasn’t a Leap Year,” Horn said. “So the computer rejected it and we had to redo the entire thing.”

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Bernd Horn celebrates his Leap Day birthday in 1972 with family. From left, brother Erik, sister Irene, Bernd, and his mother with younger brother Mark. Photo courtesy of Bernd Horn.