Leapeans, born Feb. 29, know that their birth date is unique. They know that a birthday occurring once every four years
can be confusing. They know that.

They would like us, the Leapless (born on the other days), to know a few other things:

-- Most computers don't recognize their birth date. That's a huge hassle, especially when renewing a driver's license.

-- Hearing, "Hey, you're just 5 years old!" when you're 20 is vaguely amusing only the first few times.

-- Some parents hid their birthday from them for years, or conspired with hospital record keepers to change their birth certificates.

It's the other side of their Leapness -- the myths and misunderstandings.

Having a Feb. 29 birthday has its perks: Many of the 4,200-member Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies gazed out from
TV newscasts or the front page of local newspapers when they were born.

But Raenell Dawn, co-founder of the society and founder of the Leap Year Day Project, said confusion over those birthdays
can be annoying, if not traumatizing.

Dawn, of Keizer, Ore., was born Feb. 29, 1960. When she was in second grade, she had a teacher who explained Leap Year to
the class: A day is added every four years to synchronize the calendar with the seasons, because the Earth's cycle around the sun
is not exactly 365 days.

The teacher asked if the students knew of anyone born on a Leap Year Day. One little hand went up -- Dawn's.

"`Oh, you poor child,' my teacher said, in front of the entire class," Dawn recalled. "During recess, all the kids started teasing me:
`You don't get a birthday!' `You're only 2!' `You don't know how to play this game, you're a baby!'

"A lot of us experienced that," Dawn said.

So the mission of the project (www.leapyearday.com) is to raise awareness and foster pride. There's a Leaptionary ("Leaptastic:
An amazing Leap Year related thing"), suggestions for celebrations (like a sLEAPover), LeapAnne and Leap Erickson dolls, and
memorabilia from the numerous grand Leap Year balls in the 1800s.

But the one move that would get Feb. 29 real recognition, Dawn said, would be to have "Leap Year Day" printed on every
calendar's Feb. 29.

She's has been trying to do that since 1988.

"I've contacted calendar companies," she said. "I either don't get a response, or I'm told it's not a holiday."

Geoff Chester can sympathize. He's public affairs officer at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., an official timekeeper
for the nation. And his own great-grandfather, Rear Adm. Colby Chester, was born Feb. 29, 1844.

The problem with recognizing Leap Year Day, he said, is that no agency oversees such things.

"Federal holidays go by rules formulated by Congress," Chester said. "Other days observed, like Groundhog Day, actually have
astronomical origins, as do Halloween and May Day."

Those are cross-quarter days, marking midpoints of the seasons, he explained.

Although Leap Year Day has been around since before Christ -- Julius Caesar is credited with the concept -- few if any calendars
acknowledge the day's purpose.

So some Leapers, like Lynn Bell, do it themselves.

Bell, born in 1980, is a marine-engineering student at Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay.

"When I was 5 I started screaming and crying because my birthday wasn't on the calendar," said Bell, of North Kingstown, R.I. So
now, on non-Leap Years, "I always write it on the calendar. And my family knows they're not supposed to change the calendar
until March 2."

Bell runs into other problems, most recently when she registered for an e-mail account.

"The computer wouldn't let me put my birthday in, it said it didn't exist," she said. "So I e-mailed the provider, they apologized and
fixed it for me."

Other Leapers, and their parents, encounter outright discrimination.

When Myrtle Boozer arrived at St. Francis Hospital in Hamtramck, Mich., on Feb. 29, 1952, to give birth, nuns actually attempted
to dissuade her.

"The nuns told her, `You can't have this baby today' because it was Feb. 29," said Cynthia Russell of Detroit, who insisted on being
born anyway. "I guess it's some superstition."

Her mother, now deceased, offered no further explanation, Russell added, "but that has always been part of my history."

Often older Leapers reveal that their parents either hid their true birth date, or had it changed to Feb. 28 or March 1 at the suggestion
of hospital staff.

Nowadays, Dawn goes to hospitals on March 1 of Leap Years to "visit the Leaplings born the day before," she said. She presents
new parents with a "Welcome to the World Little Leapling" information packet.

"Parents are freaking out!" Dawn said. "They say weird things like, `I don't want my baby to be part of your club!' `When are we going
to celebrate his birthday?'

"I very calmly let them know, it's not as serious as you're making it out to be," she said.

Regardless of the controversy, Leapers are born: Singer Dinah Shore, in 1916; motivational speaker Anthony Robbins, 1960; rap
artist Ja Rule, 1976.

There's also a Leap Year Day musical, Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance." The main character is apprenticed to pirates until
his 21st birthday -- which falls on Feb. 29, complicating his attempts to leave.

And there's the Worldwide Leap Year Festival in Anthony, Texas and N.M., dubbed Leap Year Capital of the World.

Mary Ann Brown, born Feb. 29, 1932, came up with the idea in 1988 to promote the Chamber of Commerce for the town, which
leaps across state borders. "I live in Anthony, Texas; three blocks down is Anthony, New Mexico," she explained.

This year's festivities Feb. 26-29 include pony rides and hayrides, a hot-air balloon liftoff, parade and fireworks.

In the past, celebrants have come from as far away as Germany, Brown said. And the celebration gets Anthony into the press each
Leap Year.

"But there are still people in the town who think I'm crazy," Brown admitted.

Feb. 6, 2004

(Dru Sefton can be contacted at dru.sefton@newhouse.com)