Public’s help needed at Our Daily Rest

If you’ve driven by Oconee’s one and only shelter for the homeless, the handsome and well-kept exterior lends itself to an air of complacency about the true need inside. That need is ongoing, as the numbers who take shelter at Our Daily Rest in Seneca continue rise. So does the list of needs for the shelter to continue to run. Cash donations are among them, but not necessarily atop the list. Susan Pickett, Our Daily Rest executive director, was unabashed as she made an appeal today to the Walhalla Rotary Club. “I’m begging,” she told the club. And she left the meeting with some cash donations as well as a bag of donated personal items that Our Daily Rest clients can put to good use. Besides an appeal for help, Pickett used her talk today to dispel some misconceptions about Our Daily Rest. Located on Seneca’s Jordan Street in the vicinity where homeless individuals find make-shift shelter, Our Daily Rest serves all of Oconee County and some of Pickens County’s homeless, as well. She told how she went to the Chattooga River and found a family living in a pup tent in temperatures as low as 25 degrees. Conceding that some people flock to the shelter simply to hide, Pickett said most of Our Daily Rest’s clients are truly in need and willing to take a drug test and follow a self-help program to determine their needs, goals, and a plan to establish themselves. And some make it. Pickett gave the example of one man who has landed a manufacturing plant job and showed his appreciation by making a $50 donation to the shelter.