Sequim residents and local businesses are stepping up to giving back to the community.

Skunkworks Auto Detailing &Body Repair provided a full service detail to a van that was donated to OlyCAP’s senior nutrition service from a retired Sequim couple.

Gabe Santiago, who runs OlyCAP’s senior nutrition program, said a local couple’s donated van was much needed for transporting meals through OlyCAP’s congregate meal and home-delivered nutrition services.

OlyCAP transports meals from the Port Angeles Community Center to Sequim’s Shipley Center on Tuesdays-Fridays for congregate meals each week and also delivers meals directly to clients’ homes.

Detailers Jesse Bailey and Chris Babcock volunteered their time on March 27 to wash and condition the inside of the van, clean its instruments and wax and touch up the paint on the outside.

Bailey said he volunteered because he knows what it is like to be without food.

“Anything I can do to help people,” he said.

Babcock shared his sentiments on the project, saying, “It comes back I feel,” when it comes to helping others.

Mozelle Maness, a volunteer tour guide at the Shipley Center, said the van was donated by her clients, a couple that recently moved and retired to Sequim who no longer needed it and wanted to make a local donation to the community.

The couple preferred to remain anonymous.

Maness then asked Linda Chamness, owner of Skunkworks, if her company would be able to help by providing a detail service to clean up the van the couple used to move materials while constructing their home. Chamness agreed to provide the service free of charge.

“I wanted to do it, it’s giving back to the community,” Chamness said about the project. She is hoping it will inspire other business owners in the community to also give back.

Santiago said OlyCAP has been borrowing a truck to transport meals but that it would have to shift its use over to the weatherization department.

When the donated van became available, it was the perfect opportunity.

“We definitely need a vehicle,” Santiago said. “It’s an awesome expense we don’t have to worry about right now,” she added.

OlyCAP’s senior nutrition program provides anywhere from 16-24 meals on any given night for the congregate program in Sequim, Santiago explained, and serves at least 20 people through Meals on Wheels.

Santiago said it was great to see everyone step up to support the senior nutrition program.