Most of us have them. Shoe boxes and envelopes crammed with photographs, some new, some so old we don’t know or can’t remember what’s in them, when they were taken or why.

With the growing popularity of scrapbooking, however, that’s beginning to change.

More than just a pastime, scrapbooking is a way to put a lifetime of photos into context, documenting lives before memories are lost forever.

To aficionados, scrapbook making is about more than compiling photographs in an album; it’s about preserving family history. Each page tells a story about a loved one, a favorite place or an important event. The only limit is the imagination.

Scrapbooking was the featured event this weekend during “Care to Crop,” a 12-hour scrapping marathon that also raised money for Care Development of Maine’s Brewer-based residential treatment program for teenage girls.

On Saturday, National Scrapbooking Day, more than 80 area scrappers took over the University College of Bangor ballroom to practice a hobby that has taken the country by storm. One of the nation’s fastest-growing hobbies, it accounts for $2 billion a year in sales.

“Once you get started, it’s one of the most addicting things in the world,” says Carla Soucie of Milford, one of the instructors tapped for the event. She began scrapbooking nine years ago, when her first child was born. “It’s an outlet and an art. It’s something you can pass on.”

Saturday’s 12-hour scrapathon offered people opportunities to learn techniques from area experts and each other. Some say events such as this are the quilting bees of the 21st century.

When not sitting in on one of the nearly 20 half-hour classes offered as part of the event, more than 80 participants clustered at long tables and used scissors, glue, paper punches and other tools to turn blank pages, photos, bits of paper, ribbon or fabric, stickers and narrative into chapters of personal history.

Scrapbooking came into vogue more than 20 years ago. Part of its allure is that it offers a safe way to preserve photographs by using materials free of acid and linen, which can damage them.

All you need to get started are some basic tools such as photographs, memorabilia, an album, paper, pens, cutting tools, stamps, stickers and adhesive. Basic techniques include “cropping,” or cutting away parts of photos, and “journaling,” using narrative beyond names and dates.

Judy Smith, owner of Judy’s Scrappin’ & Stampin’ on Main Street in Orono, was one of the event’s featured vendors. An avid scrapper, she said she makes an average of two scrapbooks a year, some to keep and some for her adult children.

“My sister-on-law got me into scrapbooking,” Smith said during a brief break in Saturday’s action. “When I first started, we had to travel to get everything.” The local demand for supplies led her to open a store.

The scrappers were doing more than preserving the past Saturday. They were focusing on a program launched six years ago in Eddington to serve as a refuge for girls 13 to 17 who have experienced abuse and are under state guardianship.

Named by its first six residents six years ago, ADAM House stands for Adolescents Developing and Maturing. It accommodates up to six girls at a time.

Last year’s event raised $2,000 through registrations, raffle tickets and a portion of the proceeds of supplies sold by area vendors who set up shop for the day, according to Alicia Nichols, Care Development’s development director.

Besides going to school, resident girls undergo counseling, engage in trust- and team-building activities and learn independent living skills, such as money management and cooking.

They also do scrapbooking.

“We try to offer them a homelike setting,” Kim Bourgoyne said. The girls help with chores such as cooking and cleaning. On Saturday, they made lunch and dinner for scrappers.

“In the beginning, there was lots of criticism,” said former house manager Jody Stevenson. “People said that adolescents shouldn’t have that kind of autonomy.” The concept, however, seems to work. Some of the girls who have stayed there have gone on to college.

She said she and a former colleague developed the program after consulting teenagers. “We were tired of seeing girls fail in foster care settings,” she said.