By BRANDON WORF

Hays Daily News

Together, a few Hays residents are helping keep the beat alive.

Jeanette Zamrzla is the mother of Brett Zamrzla, a Fort Hays State percussion student who was killed in a car crash Jan. 22, and she's banding together with a local corporation to help do just that by hosting a fly-in at the Hays Regional Airport on Saturday.

"It was one of his things to just do something for other people," Zamrzla said. "He always liked to just pay it forward, and the scholarship is something he'd said in the past that he would have wanted us to do for him."

Brett was a drum and percussion major at FHSU and had grown up playing percussion and performing in Salina and Hays. It was his involvement in community arts that inspired Jeanette Zamrzla to figure out a way to give something back in his name and to help his fellow drummers. After tossing around some ideas, she came to the idea of offering a percussion scholarship through the music department at Fort Hays State.

"The idea behind the scholarship is to encourage others to do what gave Brett life and enabled him to interact with others in a positive manner," she said. "The hope is to get the same fulfillment out of it that he did."

Soon, donations came pouring in, but with a $10,000 minimum required endowment, the task is proving to be difficult.

"I was speaking with Randy Schlitter with RANS, and he came up with the idea of doing a fly-in to help drive some funds to the endowment," she said. "We have three years to meet the minimum $10,000 before they'll start offering, and I think this will be a good way to do that." She said, in the long run, having another percussion student come to Hays will only benefit the community. "I'd like to see a new one each year," she said.

The idea is different, and to RANS founder Randy Schlitter, it's a great way to draw interest and remember Brett.

"I've known Brett for a while, and I immediately accepted him for who he was," Schlitter said. "The coolest thing about him is the contrast of characters between him and his mother, and when they're together, you can kind of see that agitation. But it's cool because they're almost entirely alike."

Knowing Brett is one of the reasons why Schlitter decided to pitch the idea of a fly-in to Brett's mother, and he hopes to fulfill Brett's legacy with the event.

"I just wish I would've had more time with him, and for the little time I knew him, he meant a lot to me," Schlitter said. "I was definitely into his philosophy, his generosity, and his ability to speak his mind at any time."

While the fly-in features planes and flight, it will also allow musicians a chance to jam.

"There will be an open mike and a stage for anyone to come down and share their music for us, just like Brett did," Schlitter said.