Kutztown Middle School Principal James Brown will be celebrating his 15th Leap Year birthday on Feb. 29.
Born on Feb. 29 in 1956, Brown shares what it has been like to celebrate his birthday on a day that occurs nearly every four years instead of yearly.
“I have always made up for the missed birthdays when it does come around,” said Brown. “When I was a kid it coincided with the Winter Olympics and we were a big skiing family so my father would take me and my brother to places like Killington. One year dad had business in Boston so after skiing he put us a plane and my brother and I flew home to Allentown with our skies, we felt like world travelers.”
When the year isn’t a leap year, Brown would celebrate his birthday on whatever day was best to have a party that was close to what would be the 29th.
“Now my wife and I celebrate all week, she was born on Feb. 27.”
He doesn’t really do anything to celebrate his birthday with students at Kutztown Middle School, “but I am always surprised how many of my old students remember that I was born on the 29th. For some of them it has been 20 years or more.”
This year he will celebrate at home, “but for the past four or five years we have attended the annual Snow Ball, a black tie charity event held by the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber Of Commerce.”
