Event founder and chair Susie Gale created Mantels and Martinis in 2012 to honor the legacy of her son Kyle Zammar, an accomplished Lee’s Summit High School athlete who died in 2006 at the age of 22 of a rare cardiac condition. Kyle had planned to become a special education teacher and coach. 

On May 29, 2006, Susie’s son Kyle died at the age of 22 of a cardiac condition called myocarditis. This condition has no recognizable symptoms and is often fatal to young athletic men like Kyle. “The indescribable grief of losing a child can take many forms,” Susie says. “I choose to honor Kyle’s legacy by trying to keep a little of his light burning in this world.”

As a Lee’s Summit High School student, Kyle was an accomplished athlete, broadcaster and leader, and most thought he could have a career in one of those fields. But, after a summer of working in a classroom for special needs children, Kyle dedicated himself to becoming a special education teacher and coach. In addition, at the time of his death, he was coaching a winning 15-year-old boys basketball team.

“My younger son Austin and I have tried to honor Kyle’s legacy by supporting Special Olympics, an organization he enthusiastically championed,” Susie said. ”Many of the students in the summer school classroom where Kyle worked are now young adults and active in the program."