Girl sees life as a comedy of errors

Alexandria Loza is writing her autobiography at the ripe age of 10.

She’s not sure yet what to call it but says, “It’s got some funny things in it.”

The Chatsworth girl, the third of five children (a sixth is due this month), is lithe, pretty and known for cracking up her family with an array of bizarre personas. She wants to be a ballerina and is on scholarship for a third year at a local academy. She likes history, the Disney Channel and Orlando Bloom.

She meets your eyes in conversation and finds a whole lot of things about the world funny. You’d never know how thorny her family’s living situation is.

A devastating theft wrecked the family’s construction company a few years ago, and her mother has had serious health problems.

“It basically took us through a financial whirlwind,” says Alexandria’s mother, Christine Loza. Alexandria’s family moved in with her father’s parents, where the seven of them rented one room in the house.

The situation has been strained, Loza says, even hostile, since Alexandria’s father and his parents were not on the best of terms before the financial calamity.

The family was soon served with an eviction notice by Alexandria’s grandparents, and they’re being sued for back rent, according to Loza.

But the kids have kept their spirits high, thanks in no small part to Alexandria’s humor and energy. “They are one big team,” Loza says. “It’s like the Von Trapp family goes homeless.”

Alexandria was excited to go to camp this year for the sixth time, her third at the Girl Scouts’ Camp Lakota in the Los Padres National Forest (she and all her sisters go each year courtesy of the Los Angeles Times Summer Camp Campaign), despite an encounter with a bear on a family trip two years ago.

“We were roasting marshmallows and behind us was the big dark forest -- spooky,” Alexandria says. “We had potato chips and this bear started getting into them. I thought it was my brother, but I looked and he was right next to me. All of a sudden I remembered where we pulled in, it said, ‘Beware of bears.’ Everyone started running to the car.”

Alexandria says that this was the best year ever at Camp Lakota.

“These kids have gone through enough for two big movies,” Christine says. “But they’re very positive. They focus on ‘What is the next good thing that’s going to happen?’ ”

About 11,000 children will go to camp this summer, thanks to $1.6 million raised last year.

The annual fundraising campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match the first $1.1 million in contributions at 50 cents on the dollar.

Donations are tax-deductible. For more information, call (213) 237-5771. To make donations by credit card, go to latimes.com/summercamp.

To send checks, use the attached coupon. Do not send cash.

Unless requested otherwise, gifts of $50 or more will be acknowledged in The Times.