FAIRFIELD — A portable pantry opened Sunday that is to be used to give out clothing and necessities to central Maine’s homeless and veteran populations.

The trailer is operated by Fairfield-based nonprofit Where Individual Needs Get Supplied, or W.I.N.G.S. The organization has an emphasis on providing clothes and camping gear to the Kennebec Valley’s homeless veterans, according to W.I.N.G.S. founder and CEO Té Kelley.

“This is my mission. I want to help people,” Kelley said. “My dream was this right here. My favorite word in the world is faith, and I had faith that this was going to happen.”

Suzanne Tilton of Skowhegan talks about the legacy of her deceased husband, Larry Tilton, who was honored Sunday during the unveiling of the new W.I.N.G.S. trailer at the Fairfield United Methodist Church at 37 Skowhegan Road in Fairfield. W.I.N.G.S., or Where Individual Needs Get Supplied, serves homeless veterans and all homeless people. The trailer carries essential items, such as warm clothing, blankets, sleeping bags, tents, footwear and personal care products. About 50 people attended the unveiling. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

For the past five years, Kelley has operated W.I.N.G.S. out of her red Jeep, delivering clothing to homeless people in Waterville, Skowhegan, Fairfield and elsewhere in Kennebec and Somerset counties.

Kelley said the new trailer is expected to provide winter coats, sleeping bags, snow boots, toothpaste, deodorant and other necessities to about 100 people a month, roughly tripling the organization’s capacity.

“People will say to me, ‘Well they’re just homeless,’ and I say ‘No, they need to be uplifted, too,'” Kelley said. “They are deserving of the good things that we have, and I want to help give it to them.”

In addition to general clothing items for those who need them, W.I.N.G.S. also provides what Kelley calls “Rehab bags,” which are backpacks stuffed with new T-shirts, underwear and socks, along with toothpaste and other necessities required to enter most rehabilitation programs.

Kelley said she is planning to expand the program through a recent partnership with the Fairfield United Methodist Church at 37 Skowhegan Road in Fairfield, where the trailer’s unveiling celebration was held Sunday morning.

Attendees view the interior Sunday of the new W.I.N.G.S. trailer during the trailer’s unveiling at the Fairfield United Methodist Church at 37 Skowhegan Road in Fairfield. W.I.N.G.S., or Where Individual Needs Get Supplied, serves homeless veterans and all homeless people. The trailer carries essential items, such as warm clothing, blankets, sleeping bags, tents, footwear and personal care products. About 50 people are attending the unveiling. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

The church has donated a small building beside the chapel that W.I.N.G.S. uses to store clothing, food and toiletries.

About 50 people attended the opening ceremony, held shortly after the Sunday service concluded. Suzanne Tilton, the widow of Larry Tilton, to whom W.I.N.G.S. dedicated the trailer, was among those in attendance.

Larry Tilton was a local musician who had played the guitar, drums and bass since he was a child. In recent years, he took it upon himself to find and fix old instruments to donate to local schools, homeless shelters and elsewhere.

“He just wanted to share with other people his love for music,” Suzanne Tilton said.

Larry Tilton began donating instruments in recent years to the Togus Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Augusta, inspiring a partnership with W.I.N.G.S. to donate guitars to homeless youth and veterans in need of a creative outlet.

Larry Tilton had also agreed to provide music at Sunday’s unveiling ceremony for the trailer. He was injured in a motorcycle accident days later, eventually succumbing to his injuries in early September.

Larry Tilton’s mission was to share his love of music with others, which he hoped would have an impact much larger than himself on his community. The W.I.N.G.S. trailer does just that, Suzanne Tilton said, even if her husband is not here to see it.

“He would’ve told you that any little thing you can do to help will help, no matter how small,” Suzanne Tilton said. “But this really would have meant so much to him.”

Gene Rouse, right, and Edgar Wing unveil the new W.I.N.G.S. trailer Sunday at the Fairfield United Methodist Church at 37 Skowhegan Road in Fairfield. W.I.N.G.S., or Where Individual Needs Get Supplied, serves homeless veterans and all homeless people. The trailer carries essential items, such as warm clothing, blankets, sleeping bags, tents, footwear and personal care products. About 50 people are attending the unveiling. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Kelley handed out stickers at the ceremony with Larry Tilton’s name written on a guitar leaning on a cross. The design is to be placed on the back of the trailer, Kelley said, and will serve as a reminder of Larry Tilton’s compassion.

His absence made the ceremony bittersweet for Kelley, who said she and Larry Tilton felt the same instinctive drive to provide for those in need.

“I feel like I’m just a tool. I’m a bridge between what everybody has that they don’t use, and what other people don’t have and they do use,” Kelley said. “I’m just that bridge. And I think Larry was a really strong bridge, too.”

Sunday’s unveiling ceremony was held beneath a cloudless blue sky, with cool temperatures and little wind. It ended as attendees placed their palms against the trailer while the church’s pastor, Brenda Haskell, offered the blessing.

“Lord, bless every journey this vehicle undertakes, and may your presence be felt strongly within it, protecting all who travel with it,” Haskell said. “May it serve you well and remind us of our responsibility to care for the gifts you have entrusted to us and to all the people. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

“Amen,” the crowd responded.