A school of one’s own

To keep up the pace, Alaina has had to miss a lot of school, sighs her mother (earning a fist pump in the air from Alaina behind Jamie’s back). In Ottawa this spring, Harper praised the 11-year-old for “providing hope and support to thousands who were denied basic human rights and brutalized by the Taliban for the simple, heinous reason that they were female.” There, she was also swarmed by visiting Afghan female parliamentarians; the MPs from Kabul drowned Alaina in kisses, leaving sticky red and purple lipstick smeared “all over” her hands and face, she says, scrunching up her nose in mock disgust.

There’s something about kids like Alaina, whose smile still shows the gap of a missing baby tooth, and who haven’t come to accept life’s unhappy truths — poverty, racism and inequality will always exist, for instance — that makes adults melt. At the school assembly, a Conservative political assistant broke down in tears as she handed the young fundraisers plaques from the federal government, recognizing their efforts. So did school librarian Darylene Godkin. “The universe smiles down at them,” Godkin later told Maclean’s. “People flock to them.” (Alaina’s unfazed by the weeping grown-ups that surround her. “Happens all the time,” she shrugs, pushing back a stray wisp of dirty-blond hair.)

After the assembly, Davidson Road Elementary’s 25-member chapter of Little Women followed her into the school’s music room. There, the fourth- and fifth-graders described to Maclean’s what their lives might be like if they were transplanted to Afghanistan, where, they explained, “boys get to go out and play, but girls have to stay home and cook and clean.” “I’d feel trapped because I couldn’t go out without a man,” said one. “I’d have no friends to play with,” said another. “I’d feel dumb, cause I’d have to stay home and clean up instead of going to school,” said a third. “I’d be so-o-o-o-o-o BORED!” one shouted from the back, sparking an explosive round of giggles, and a long list of sports, books and TV shows — especially hockey, Harry Potter, Hannah Montana — they’d miss most.

Alaina, who’s convinced girls in nearby communities to launch Little Women chapters of their own and is talking to kids in Newfoundland and Manitoba about doing the same, is a natural leader. At soccer practice, she’s always first to the ball, deftly controlling the play. In their season opener a few days earlier, Alaina — a centre forward with the long legs needed for downfield sprints — scored a hat trick. (In all, three-quarters of her soccer team, the Lake Country Lynx, are involved in Little Women in some capacity.)

Her concern doesn’t stop at faraway conflict zones; she is moved by suffering closer to home. On the way to meet with GetOn.com, the Kelowna-based Web design firm that donates its services to Little Women, Alaina interrupts her mom’s conversation to tell her the homeless person with the sign “Family abducted by aliens. Grandparents gone. Friends insane.” has moved to a new corner. Perturbed, she watches him from the back window, willing the family’s pickup truck to stop. “We’re always so greedy,” she whispers. Someday, she’ll be making a difference in Kabul and Kelowna, she hopes. First, though: Grade 6.