A Heartbeat Lives On: Sophomore Zella Handzel, a Kansas Teen of Impact, spreads heart health awareness after the loss of her father

There are two shiny, red pins on sophomore Zella Handzel’s red shirt as she’s sitting in her first hour chemistry class. 

One’s a red dress that reminds her of her nomination as a Kansas Teen of Impact.

The other’s a red ribbon for her “hero.” For her father. For Chris. 

He was a volleyball fan, food connoisseur and college athlete. He worked diligently for his “second family” — the Howard Needles Tammen and Bergendoff architecture firm. Chris didn’t seek attention; he sought to lift others up, according to Zella.  

Chris collapsed at Zella’s older sister, Emaline’s, volleyball tournament, from a cardiac arrest resulting from atrial fibrillation. His family had a history of heart conditions, and Chris had the recessive trait. Days later, on April 29, 2024, he passed away. 

But Zella’s not letting this be the end of his story. She’s keeping his story alive by using her platform as a Teen of Impact to raise awareness around heart health and the life-saving technique of CPR.

“There's so many ways that I see him,” Zella said. “I'll just think, ‘I miss you so much’, but then I think about, ‘Look at what I'm doing now. I wish you could have been here to see all of it.’ I wouldn't have been as connected if I didn't see it as such a big issue in my life. So, I think it’s something negative that turned into such a positive impact.”

Zella was nominated to be a Kansas Teen of Impact by American Heart Association Development Director Natalie Spar. The Teen of Impact program is a nine-week program that started on Feb. 6, raising money and awareness for the AHA. 

Over the nine weeks, Zella, along with a “team” of her closest supporters, hopes to raise $10,000 for the AHA. Apart from donations from family, friends and local organizations, she’ll also lead school and community leadership activities, such as CPR training and fundraisers. 

“Zella is just such a personable, joyous person,” Spar said. “She's just a joy to be around. She really wants to bring honor to her dad and her family. And I think that’s a really, really touching reason for wanting to do this.”

****

Chris was the kind of person who attended heart walks to raise awareness for heart disease. 

The kind of person who wore AHA T-shirts everywhere he went.

The kind of person who attended every one of his daughter’s volleyball matches, and made up cheers and dances with the other spectators.

And the kind of person who, unbeknownst to his family, was an organ donor. 

In fact, Zella’s mother, Carissa, and Chris had discussed his hesitation to be a donor in the past, but he had just quietly changed his mind. It wasn’t until Chris passed that the Handzels found out he was a donor. 

“My mom just broke out in tears,” Zella said. “I couldn't believe this all happened, and that he really made such a big difference.”

Then, they received the letters.

Coupled with hand drawn illustrations from children, in the following months, the Handzel family sat down to open up the notes of gratitude addressed to them from the organ recipients. 

“He wasn't even thinking about [being a hero], but it was just such a difference that directly affected people's lives,” Zella said. “So when we received those letters, it was like, ‘Wow, this is real, they called him a hero. Yeah, he was, and you didn't even know him.”

So when Zella turned 16 and received her driver’s license she proudly checked the “organ donor” box, because her “hero,” her father, was a donor too. 

****

Several days before Chris passed, Emaline remembers him collapsing on the floor of the gym at her Baltimore volleyball tournament. In the critical moments after he fell and before the first responders arrived, Emaline performed CPR on her father. 

It was this measure that allowed Zella to be able to spend a precious few more days with her father. 

Yes, Zella had taken basic CPR during school, but after the process became personal, she wanted to honor her father by teaching others this potentially life-saving skill.

On Feb. 18, Zella led a hands-only CPR course at SM East in partnership with the Heart Club — the first of her many official Teen of Impact events.

Six girls, humming “Pink Pony Club” to stay on beat, all crowded around three plastic, tan dummies. They diligently watched Spar demonstrate how to conduct hands-only CPR.

With more than a dozen members of the Future is Female Club, Zella leads monthly meetings on woman empowerment and health. She started the club in 2024, after the election in which vice president Kamala Harris lost. The Feb. 18 meeting was a collaboration with Heart Club. 

Zella invited Spar and her three mannequins, and kicked the meeting off with a presentation about empowering women in the heart health field. 

As the founder of the Future is Female club, Zella raises awareness for these differences in research and equality. She’ll prepare a women’s heart health slideshow to present at other meetings or print off heart anatomy worksheets to color. 

“Instead of withdrawing or getting angry and lashing out about [Chris’s death], I'm really proud of her, because she's chosen to take this and find a new meaning for her life to where she can educate and support other people,” Zella’s grandmother Lynn Vandolah said. 

****

Sitting in her first-hour chemistry class on Feb. 6, Zella’s jaw drops.

A notification lights up her phone: “Happy Kickoff Day! You just received your first donation.”

Zella clicked on the Heart Association app and saw that her great aunt was her first donor. Zella had been attending preparation workshops and meeting with Spar for weeks, but now the reality of the campaign began to set in. 

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is official,’” Zella said. “You hear this is what you're going to do in this campaign, this is who you're going to reach out to, and then knowing that I actually started, I looked at my watch and I was like, ‘Oh my God, it's 9 a.m., it's time.’” 

Zella came home from school that afternoon to a new addition in her front yard — a red sign that says: “A Kansas Teen of Impact lives here.” The sign was a congratulatory present from Spar, signifying the kickoff of Zella’s campaign, complete with a QR code to access her donation page. 

As of Feb. 18, she has 53 donors and 14 team members. But she hasn’t reached her end goal. 

“I wanted to find a way I could honor [my dad] that will actually make a difference in our communities,” Zella said. “[Kansas Teen of Impact] was one of the ways where it was something that is unknown and I might not know what to do at first, but it will be such a great opportunity.”

The AHA funds more heart research than any other organization in the U.S., except for the federal government, according to its website. All the money Zella raises will contribute to this research. The Handzels view these small, instrumental tips, such as how to perform CPR, as necessary to extend their time with Chris. To extend his story.

“I think that this bad experience honors her father because she is teaching other people and making other people aware of heart health,” Vandolah said. “That's done as his legacy. He would be so proud of her.”