United Way: Happy Leap Year!
Not only is 2-1-1 Day in February, but there is an extra day! It’s a Leap Year, and Feb. 29 is rolling around again! Do you know someone special whose birthday or anniversary is Feb. 29? What traditions do you know about for Leap Year? There is an old Celtic folklore that only in Leap Years can women propose marriage. Some communities celebrate Feb. 29 as Sadie Hawkins Day with dances where girls ask boys to attend. I know a couple of people whose birthdays are Feb. 29, and a couple from my church were married on Leap Year Day. According to USA Today, Feb. 29 is the rarest birthday someone could have. Yet at least 5 million people celebrate their birthday on Leap Day, according to the History Channel. Your odds of being born on Feb. 29 are one-in-1,461. Did you know people born on Leap Day are called, “Leaplings”?
Although many ancient cultures were aware of the need to account for extra seasonal hours, the formal Julian calendar was created when Julius Caesar asked the help of Greek astronomer Sosigenes, who was an adviser to Egypt’s Cleopatra, to create a new solar calendar. The new Julian calendar took effect in 45 B.C. and was based on the math that a year should consist of exactly 365 days and six hours, and that every four 365-day years those extra six hours would total to one extra day. The Julian calendar was still slightly off, and the Gregorian calendar we use today, implemented in 1582, was supposed to correct this.
All that being said, what will you do with your extra Leap Day this year? In sticking with my theme of helping others, maybe you can start a Leap Day tradition of doing a random act of kindness! Who knows, maybe you can start a new trend for Feb. 29! If you need help with finding volunteer activities, contact us! We can help steer you to community agencies who do good deeds every day!
Please note that you can still register for our 21-Week Equity Challenge that began Jan. 15 (MLK Jr. Day) and continues through June 19 (Juneteenth). The challenge is a self-guided learning journey designed to deepen participants’ understanding of, and willingness to confront racial equity issues. Participants can register at unitedwayMLC.org.
We currently fund a total of 25 local agency programs in Monroe County. See our website (unitedwayMLC.org) for a list of those agencies. We appreciate your support to help fight poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, mental health and substance use disorders, domestic violence, and other important community needs! Additional direct programs and services provided by our local United Way include the 2-1-1 Health and Human Services Hotline, Project Ramp, Health Check, and the 21-Week Equity Challenge.
For more information about giving and living united, please contact us! Call us at 734-242-1331, email lpipis@unitedwaymlc.org, mail a contribution or visit us at 216 N. Monroe St., Monroe, MI 48162 or visit our website at unitedwaymlc.org. Visit our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok social media platforms, too!
— Laura Schultz Pipis is the executive director of the United Way of Monroe/Lenawee counties.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: United Way: Happy Leap Year!
