AUBURN — Diane Doe grew up in Limestone, where her father was superintendent of schools. She still has fond memories of getting a month off to pick potatoes each fall.

She’d work near friends, wear jeans when pants weren’t normally allowed and someone would always blast the World Series on the radio.

Now 62, Doe is still proud of her personal best: 32 barrels of potatoes in one day.

“At the exciting rate of 25 cents a barrel,” she quipped.

In a family of eight children, everything got used and reused.

“I don’t know who they were, but we used to get boxes (of hand-me-downs) from twin girls — my best friend and I could wear the same outfits,” Doe said. “My parents were practicing the philosophy of recycling before it was well-known. You didn’t just throw things away.”

That was a theme that attracted her to the SHAREcenter decades later.

Doe retired in August after 15 years as director.

When she arrived at the SHAREcenter, Doe had already worked as a business analyst at Fortune 500 companies and for the government. Her daughter had recently graduated college and she was looking for a new career that was less about pay and more about enjoying the work.

“I knew that the business world really wants to help support education,” she said. “The best way to do that is not necessarily to turn over cash.”

The center works with about 50 schools and 20 to 30 nonprofits giving out about $500,000 in product a year, mostly leftover stock, samples and odds and ends that businesses can no longer use.

Taking over from the founder, Doe made business and school contacts, and got creative. For instance, how to use the thick, blue wrap used to hold sterilized tools, donated in abundance by St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston?

The eventual answer: As painting smocks and as table covers.

Acorn Shoe used to donate little pieces Doe nicknamed “fleece worms.”

“People would stick it on something and make beards for plays,” she said. Others glued googly eyes to it, some made pillows.

Doe plans to move soon to Lyme, N.H., where she’s been splitting her time for the past several years. She has two grandsons there, 4 and 8, growing up too fast.

She said she feels like the SHAREcenter is in good hands with its new director, Paula Thibodeau.

“I’ll miss the community,” Doe said. “I really don’t know what’s next but that’s another adventure.”

Know someone everyone knows? Contact staff writer Kathryn Skelton at [email protected] or 689-2844