By Kaelin O'Connell
koconnell@sjnewsco.com

Tomorrow, 7-year-old James Dougherty will enter his terrible twos, Marianne Contino, 51, will hit puberty, and Jim Yavorsky will turn 13, the same age as his daughter.

Friday, Leap Year Day, marks the calendar's first Feb. 29 in four years. The day not only allows for unusual age interpretations, it also offers the world's 4 million Leap Year Babies the rare chance to celebrate their birthdays on the actual day.

"When I was a child, I used to 'fix' all the calendars in our house," said Dianne Petruncio, a Leap Year Baby from Sewell. "I would draw another box at the end of February and label it the 29th. In my world there was no March 1."

At least 12 Leap Year Babies live in Gloucester County and its surrounding areas -- Deb LeCates of Swedesboro, Valerie Hopely of Mantua, Dianne Petruncio of Sewell, Marianne Contino of Thorofare, Jim Yavorsky of Mickleton, Darren Baker of West Deptford, Jodi Holbrook of Deptford, Ginny Neilio of Brooklawn, Alanna Graham of Philadelphia, James Dougherty of Glassboro and Rita Mangino of Franklinville (as well as her twin, who lives in Sicklerville).

"Almost anyone who hears your birthday makes the connection that that's Leap Day," said Peter Brouwer, co-founder of the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies. "The eyebrow goes up and inevitably the question comes up, 'How old are you anyway? How do you celebrate?' "

So, how old are they anyway? How do they celebrate?

"We always had a bigger celebration on Leap Years. We would make sure we would go out to special dinners, and when I was younger my mom would make sure we had a birthday party on Leap Year," Mangino, 47, said of her and her twin. On non-Leap Years: "We celebrate it on the day before since we were born in February." Hopely, 67, said she also felt an allegiance to February.

"The whole time that I was at home my parents celebrated on the first of March," she said. "As a kid I would say 'I was born in February,' and my dad would say 'You weren't born on the 28th.' When I got married I said, 'This is it -- I don't have a day, so don't take my month away.' "

Hopely has been celebrating on Feb. 28 ever since. She added that she only appreciated being a Leap Year Baby when her grandchildren came along and delighted in being close in age to their mom-mom.

"Years ago my grandson, Ryan, stood before his class and told them he had a 15-year-old grandmother. He let them puzzle it out for a while; no one got it. He then explained about me being born on Leap Year. Grandmom was 'Show and Tell' for the day," Hopely said.

Jim Yavorsky, a research chemist from Mickleton, said he had no particular loyalty to either month and would celebrate his Leap Day birthday on whatever weekend was closest. This Leap Year, he is celebrating a little more than usual by taking the day off and spending it in New York with his family, including his daughter who turns 13 (just like her dad) on March 4.

"It's nice having something a little bit different," Yavorsky said. "My mother was born on New Year's Day." Stacey Letterman of Glassboro was due to have her son James Dougherty in mid-March of 2000, but she went into labor on Feb. 28. She finally gave birth at 1:26 a.m. on Feb. 29.

"We didn't even think about him being born on Leap Year," she said, but added that once they noted the date they thought it was neat. "It was surprising how many people didn't know what Leap Year was, though." Brouwer, who operates leapyear.com, offered a helpful explanation.

"The earth takes about 365 and 1⁄4 days to circumnavigate the sun. If we didn't account for that 1⁄4 day, the seasons would drift and spring would arrive a little earlier each year," he said. "To account for the 1⁄4 day, a full day is added to the calendar every four years. In fact, we have to add 97 leap days to the calendar every 400 years."

That means that not every year divisible by four is a leap year; when the calendar hits centennials a leap year only occurs if the year is divisible by 400. So, 1800 and 1900 did not have a Feb. 29, but 2000 did.

The unusual date has caused problems for Leap Year Babies ranging from being unable to post a comment on YouTube to having their birthdays rejected in Borders' online job applications (both companies have fixed the problems), Brouwer said. Leapers have also missed out on mailings of birthday cards and coupons from retail stores, and some even said police have questioned the authenticity of their driver's licenses.

"We call it the 'invalid birthday bug,' " Brouwer said.

Dougherty, who was born on Leap Year of Y2K, experienced this when he went into the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia as an infant. The hospital computers could not process his birthday, so employees chose between Feb. 28 and March 1. Eventually the paperwork was corrected, his mom said.

Yavorsky ran into the "invalid birthday bug" when he had to renew his driver's license by a deadline that did not exist, Feb. 29 of a non-Leap Year.

"A lot of people say, 'Why don't you put Feb. 28 in as your birthday?' " Brouwer said, "but we don't accept that as a solution. Really that's just perpetuating the problem."

The Honor Society for Leap Year Day Babies alerts companies when their sites pose problems for Leapers, and they also lobby to get "Leap Year" written on every calendar, a move which they believe will raise awareness of the day.

Feb. 29 does, however, offer some perks to its offspring in the forms of special deals and freebies. Morton's the Steakhouse is offering Leapers a free steak and seafood dinner. The Wings are offering them two free tickets to Friday's lacrosse game, and Papa John's, Boston Market and the Atlantic City Hilton, among others, are also offering special promotions.

Brouwer noted one more perk, too.

"Also, I believe that people that are born on Leap Day actually think younger," he said. "The reason is we just haven't had as many birthdays and we haven't thought about getting a year older. Who knows if it's true? But we all say it, so there must be something to it."