Alumnus raising money for Kazakhstan school

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 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for a new primary school.

The school will be named Ad Astra Academy – meaning "To the Stars" Academy.

"Many of the schools in Kazakhstan are subpar," Pitts said. "She wants better for the children."

In a letter to the Pitts family, Omurzakova updated them on the status of the renovations.

The process is "tedious and costly," she wrote, adding that she has begun hiring.

She is hoping to reach back to her experiences and relationships in Odessa to raise money as well as collect books and other supplies for the school.

"We need books for children up to 10 years old in English, especially for kids with ESL," Omurzakova said in her letter. "I could pay the cost of shipping to Karakol via sea. Also, I need fairly good condition laptops, iPads...I would then arrange the shipment."

A Go Get Funding webpage, https://gogetfunding.com/mirgul-omurzakova/, has been set up to help raise funds for the school.