An Okotoks firefighter is celebrating a rare occasion today.

Despite having been alive for fourty years, Ryan Kaiser was born on February 29th, meaning he only gets to celebrate his true birthday once every four years. He turns 10 today.

He says it's always good for a laugh.

"It's a unique birthday, and when you tell someone 'Oh yeah, I'm having my tenth birthday or my fourth birthday,' people kinda look at you like 'What's going on, is there something wrong with you?' But then you explain to them it's the 29th, and then they're like 'Oh. Well that's kinda cool!'"

Despite being somewhat of an oddity, the leap year birthday doesn't present too many difficulties for Kaiser, save for the occasional joke from his father about the 28th not being his 'real birthday.'

Some couples will aim for a February 29th delivery date for their baby, though Kaiser says his unique birthday came about in a serendipitous way.

"My dad kinda holds it a little bit against me because I was supposed to be due on his first day of vacation, and I came on his last day of vacation, so... oops!"

The chances of being born on February 29th are 1 in 1461, meaning Kaiser shares his birthday with 0.07% of the world's population.

Despite the odds, Kaiser isn't the only leap year baby in Okotoks, and he's actually run into a few others in his time.

"I've known a few other leap year people and actually two of them used to be in the school division. One of them was my junior high principal, Rob Irvine, and then just after I graduated, Joyce Loucks became the VP at Foothills Composite."

In four year's time, Ryan will celebrate his 11th birthday, by which time his son will also be 11.

 

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