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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1996-02-28, Page 13\�= -iLP&IF-11:Wo" ocal residents celebrate leap year birthdays How does leap year work? According to the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the year is defined as being the interval between two successive passages of the sun through the vernal equinox (the instant when the sun isabove the earth's equator while travelling from south to the north). The .t+'ltct;f the•Julian calendar to the Gregorian involved the change of the leap year rule to one in which century years should only be leap years if they were divisible by 400. The result is to make the adopted average length of the year 365.2425 days.• Heather Mir T A staff EXETER - What are the chances? Identical twins born on leap day must be a very rare occurrence but they do say truth can be stranger than fiction. Marlene Mathers (nee Frayne) and her late sister Darlene were born in Exeter on Feb. 29, 1944. Darlene, the second born, arrived just before midnight in time to be a leap day baby: Sadly, she died in a car accident in 1969. "I think the odds are pretty slim," said Mathers of delivering twins on leap day. This year Mathers celebrates her 13th birthday if you go by leap years and she makes the most of her circumstances. " ou get lots of teasing about it," she said, adding she is just approaching her teens. She remembers one instance when her husband attempted to get her into a movie at a child's price. After explaining she was in fact under the age requirement because of leap year, the ticket clerk understood the joke but didn't let her in at a discounted price. Although Mathers usually celebrates her birthday on Feb. 28 or March 1, and sometimes on both dates, once every four years she really has a party. Friends and family have always made sure not to miss these birthdays and they are usually celebrated with a big bash, sometimes including fellow leap day baby Don McCallum, of Exeter. McCallum was born the saran year as Mathers and they attended e,Llisi©t4ligh•Schtiol together. Snell, a grade 6 student at Exeter Public-Schoo1, is approaching his third leap year birthday. This oneris special because he was too young to remember his first leap birthday and his last was spent in the hospital. Snell said he celebrates his birthday on March 1 during the period between leap years but is looking forward to a big celebration at the youth centre on Feb. 29. He admits having a leap birthday does give him special attention, such as having a reporter take him out of class on a Friday afternoon - not bad!. We tracked down another area resident with a leap year birthday - Rick Ingram of Hensall. We wish all leap day babies a very happy birthday F Multi media Si Technology In the classroom. Grade seven students of Exeter Public School display some of the projects they created while researching different physical features of the earth recently. Using a question to focus their research, each student presented their findings in a variety of methods. Many used plasti- cene, others built working models of the Earth's forces to demonstrate how they affected. the Earth's surface, while others used multi -media presenta- tions. The protects allowed the students to demonstrate their understanding of modem technology and its uses in the classroom. From left, Ashley Nixon, Kyle Fusich. BaCk row, Alex Kemp, Shawn Thomas, Shawn Talbot, Maggie Steciuk, Steve Willis. On the right from front, Courtney Oke, Adam Little and Josh Long. 1