She has some crochet thread, a favorite hook and a desire to help. But that’s all Leone Labreck, 75, who has been crocheting since she was a junior in high school, really needs.

And it seems she has come full circle. The craft she learned as a teenager decades ago is now helping other teens. Labreck donates a crocheted doily every year to the John Bapst Memorial High School spring auction.

“My daughter, Van, works at the school and asked me if I’d make a doily,” said Labreck. “And I really enjoy doing this – not just the crocheting of the doilies, but helping to raise funds for the school.”

Labreck likes helping others, period, as is evidenced by her exhaustive volunteer work and part-time job. Yet she always finds time if she sees a need.

“I crochet the doily for the school in my spare time,” Labreck said. “It takes about a week. The doily is good-sized at about 36 inches in diameter. It has a pineapple motif – rows of pineapples starting at about 10 inches from the center.”

In parts of the South, the pineapple represents hospitality, something which Labreck has in abundance.

“It’s a great thing to be able to give up your dinner hour to teach a person to crochet,” she said. “I’m also teaching an elderly man, who was in the service in WWII, to knit right now because he said his feet would have frozen during the war if a woman from around here hadn’t knit him socks. Because of that, he wanted to learn to knit himself.”

But just where does she find the time to do everything?

“I think you find time to do what you really enjoy and that’s it,” she said. “And it’s so rewarding to volunteer. The hours you put in you get back [in satisfaction.] And I think seniors who don’t know what to do with themselves should get out there and volunteer. Volunteering can change your life – it just makes you feel so good. And it’s important to have a purpose when you get up in the morning.”

Labreck has no intention of slowing down.

“[Doily making] is not going to stop as long as I have my sight and my hands,” she said. “And I think children are so important and anything you can do for them is important. And if they see adults working so hard for their benefit and to help them, well, I think it makes a difference. The auction is such a great thing that I think other schools should do it, too.”

The pineapple doily is but one of the items graciously donated to the auction. There is everything from Penobscot wicker baskets to Penobscot bingo passes to field-grown perennials. There are at least 150 items up for bid, including an autographed photo of Ted Williams and Johnny Pesky, a Maine granite bench and a kayak.

The list of things to be auctioned off runs from A to Z and back, said Melody Weeks, director of development at the school. The students are even getting into the act by donating their time for some spring and fall clean up.

“This year the committee is composed of all parents, all volunteering their time,” said Weeks. “There will be wonderful hors d’oeuvres, and desserts which have all been donated and a cash bar. We’ll even have entertainment. There is truly something for everyone, so we hope people will come and have fun.”

If you would like more information about the auction, which begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 12, at the high school, call John Bapst at 947-0313.

Carol Higgins is director of communications at Eastern Agency on Aging. For information on EAA, call 941-2865.