It was truly their day
Some people might complain about having to celebrate their birthday on a Wednesday, the unattractive “hump day” of the business week.
Not Amina Bolden.
The upbeat 12-year-old Downey resident is just excited that every four years, Feb. 29 comes around at all.
“It makes me feel special,” said Amina, who was born at 3:06 p.m. on the rare day in 2000. “People are very excited for me and I get a lot of attention. I feel like I’m wanted.”
Amina was one of 10 guests, all leap year birthday celebrators, who were invited to blow out birthday candles at a private luncheon at Antonello Ristorante on Wednesday.
The South Coast Plaza Village restaurant hosts a lot of events for community groups and other private events, but this was something new and different, said Thaddeus Foret, restaurant managing partner.
“I thought it was an interesting idea when I first heard of it,” Foret said of hosting the special event. “I didn’t expect it would turn out this big.”
A number of local and regional media outlets crowded into the restaurant’s private dining room along with friends and family of the celebrants.
Amina’s mother, Aimee Bolden, angled to get a shot of her smiling daughter amid the cameras.
“It’s more of a blessing than a curse,” Aimee Bolden said. “She gets so much attention and she just eats it up.”
Last leap year, the Boldens celebrated the special day by traveling to Anthony, a border-straddling town between Texas and New Mexico, where revelers celebrated the day with a leap year parade. Amina was honored with a trophy declaring her the town’s youngest leap year baby at “3” years old.
Amina does, of course, celebrate her birthday every year. She said her favorite birthday was a non-leap year, when she turned 6, because all her friends and family were present.
However, an annual birthday on any other day is just not the same as a birthday on Feb. 29.
“It’s really special just to be celebrating on your real birthday,” Amina said. “Any other day, that’s not the day you were born — that’s not your day.”
Twitter: @speters01