Everyone here either knows Avril or knows someone who knows Avril," says David Remington, the mayor of Lavigne's itty-bitty hometown, Napanee, Ontario. The population is 5,000 -- everyone knows everyone, but the locals take particular pride in the eighteen-year-old who has gone from singing at town fairs to selling 4 million albums. Napanee is little more than two main roads that intersect. If you're a kid, there's not much to do -- maybe bowl a game at Loyalist Lanes, where Lavigne was booted for skateboarding, catch a flick at the town's one theater or hit the ice rink. There isn't even a record shop in town: When Let Go was first released, the only place in town that sold it was Home Hardware.

Lavigne's success has caused a flurry of activity in Napanee. Since she wore a Home Hardware T-shirt for her January 11th Saturday Night Live appearance, the store has sold almost 2,000 of them to townies and tourists.

Down the road at Bill and Marina Kosmopoulos' La Pizzeria, fans pour in from around the globe to sample "Avril Lavigne's special pizza," with pepperoni, mushrooms and green olives. "A young guy wanted to know where Avril sat," says Bill. "I told him she sat all over, so he had his dad film him with a video camera, eating his slice at every table."

To the preteen girls gathered at the ice rink, Lavigne's success proves that even Napanites have a shot at worldwide celebrity. Says eleven-year-old Drew Campbell, "My friends all want to be singers because of Avril."

(February 24, 2003)