Shaelyn Grace Belknap of Montpelier is celebrating what her mother refers to as a “once in a lifetime birthday. She turns 12 years old on 12/12/12. She was born at 4:44 p.m., which, once you add up the numbers, is yet another 12. This is the last we will see of dates with this sort of sequence of numbers in this century, so it truly is a once in a lifetime event.
Shae, the daughter of Stacy (Brian) McKibben and Dave Belknap, is a 6th grader at Montpelier Schools. She is active in choir and plays softball in the summer for the CK Technologies team. She is a “phone-a-holic” who loves to talk and text, and she would like to be a hair stylist when she grows up. She is the middle child in her family which also consists of sisters Sydney Belknap, age 14; Symantha Belknap, age 9; and baby brother Xander McKibben, age 1 ½.
So how is she going to celebrate her special day? Her mother Stacy ordered a special T-shirt for her birthday, indicating the date and her age. She will take a treat into school, and will also have a party near the date, to which she has invited 12 guests. She said that she wants gifts that are “anything zebra-striped,” but her Aunt Cheri Jaggers jokingly suggests that people give her anything that comes in a dozen. As for Aunt Amy Faunce, she wants Shae to pick her lottery numbers that day. Her Aunt Cheri also baked a 3-tiered cake for the special occasion.
When asked what she thought about this unusual occurrence of “12’s,” Shae didn’t have much of an opinion, but she did say that the world was not going to end on 12/21/12 as some believe. Surely it cannot when there are enthusiastic and special young people such as Shae in this world.
As for 12/12/12, according to her mother, it will be “all eyes on Shae” that day.
