Local Youth Artist Does It Again, Donates Painting Proceeds To Sheriff's Office K9 Fund

Parin Patel with his parents, Nisha and Manish Patel, present an $1100 donation to the Edmonson County Sheriff's Office for their K9 fund. Sheriff Shane Doyle is at left, Deputy Jordan Jones at right.

Darren Doyle, story and photos:
Local artist Parin Patel, a 9-year old third grade student at South Edmonson Elementary, has found another local cause to donate funds from his painting hobby. 

Patel, who is the son of Manish and Nisha Patel, owners of Chalybeate Food Mart, donated $1,111 to the Edmonson County Sheriff's Office for their K9 fund today. Patel found a passion for painting earlier this year where the paintings began to stack up at their home. His father, Manish said after a family discussion, they decided the funds would be best used if they were invested back into the community.

Earlier this summer, Parin made a $1500 donation to the Edmonson County Community Education and the EC Family Resource/Youth Services Centers. All those funds came from the selling of his works, which are available in their store.

Winter scene paintings available from Parin.

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​"We want to help with the K9 funding," said Mr. Patel. "We really appreciate the community that bought the paintings. That money is actually not mine, it belongs to the community so we just want to give it back."

Parin's mother, Nisha said the same. "We can do nothing without our community so that's why we want to always help our community," she added.

Patel said Parin has also recently taken up the piano as well as the guitar. When asked if we could expect Parin to be in concert anytime soon, the Patels laughed but didn't yet have an answer for that; however, if it's anything like his newfound painting talent, he just might be performing hit songs sooner rather than later.

He has sold over 150 paintings and his parents said as long as he wants to continue to paint, the store will continue to sell the artwork and donate the funding back to the community. 

Sheriff Shane Doyle and Deputy Jordan Jones, who is Edmonson County's K9 Officer, accepted the donation from Parin.

"This was a really awesome gift and we really appreciate Parin and the Patels for helping with our cause," said Jones, who lost his K9 partner, Tango earlier this year. 

Sheriff Doyle also thanked the Patels for their generosity.

"Thank you is not quite enough to say to this gesture," he said. "The Patels have proven to be wonderful community partners as they're no strangers to giving back to local causes. As we've said before, acquiring a qualified K9 Officer is a very expensive and detailed process. We are currently working to add another K9 as soon as possible and this donation helps tremendously."

Doyle said even with the proper funding, it's not as simple as just going to a trainer and purchasing a dog. 

"We have to make sure it's the right fit, the K9 is a good fit with our handler, who is Deputy Jones, as well as a good fit for our office. It's much more detailed than most would think, but hopefully we'll be able to add another K9 soon."

For more information about Parin's artwork, you can contact Chalybeate Food Mart or Manish Patel's Facebook page.