The Odessa Record - Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!

ODESSA - Local high school alumnus and former foreign exchange student Mirgul Omurzakova is raising money for a primary school she is building in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Omurzakova attended Odessa High School in 1994, staying with the Scherr family.

"She was an excellent student," Duane Pitts said. "She fell in love with Eastern Washington, the Ken Scherr family in Odessa and rural life."

Pitts is a retired English teacher who instructed Omurzakova during her exchange year here.

Since graduating, she has remained in contact with Pitts over the years and is now trying to remodel an old hotel i...