It sits against the wall in Betsy Vatavuk's bedroom. The drawers hold her 4-H memories. She has been a member since she was 7 years old, following her parents, who were lifelong members.

Like the porcelain dolls, embroidered pillows and Persian rugs she has kept throughout her 62 years, she has kept the chest, a time capsule of her life.

This weekend, she is in Washington, D.C., where she is being honored at the National 4-H Youth Conference Center. Vatavuk has received the 2007 National 4-H Salute to Excellence Award for being an Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer.

"It's hard to be around Ms. Vatavuk and not know that she has a real passion for 4-H, and she cares about kids," says Harriett Edwards, an assistant professor and extension specialist at N.C. State University who helped nominate Vatavuk.

"It's very obvious very quickly that that's where her heart is ... she leans forward and her eyes light up," Edwards says. "It gets her attention when you talk about young people."

The thick, turquoise scrapbook in Vatavuk's walnut chest binds yellowed newspaper clippings: her national 4-H award for canning and food preservation in 1962, her landslide 1963 election as 4-H state historian.

Black-and-white photos show a bright-eyed teenager sitting with her mother in their kitchen, holding a jar of preserved peas or strawberry jam. Or of young Betsy shelling peas with her parents.

A green records book with a large four-leaf clover 4-H logo shows 16-year-old Betsy gathering corn in a sleeveless denim blouse, denim shorts and red shoes.

"I sewed those myself," she says, "the whole outfit."

It had been a sewing project for 4-H, she explains. Several pages later, past more photos in gardens of strawberries, corn and grapes, she pauses.

"It was a lot of hard work, but I learned a lot of life lessons," she reflects quietly.

She has carried those lessons to the young people she works with today. She used to teach teenagers to sew, crochet and knit. These days, she teaches Durham youths the basics, such as writing.

Vatavuk works with young people in substance-abuse-prevention programs in Durham County as well as with other at-risk teenagers.

"One of the unique things about 4-H programs is it's all volunteer-based," says Marshall Stewart, director of the state 4-H program. "With all the things going on in the world today, with what youth are facing, we need people like Betsy."

Vatavuk opens her home to teach reading, math and English during the school year. It is mainly to help the students who have fallen behind. She, her husband and her son had been teaching writing at the Durham County 4-H Agricultural Building on Foster Street during the summers.

Twice a year, 4-H holds a conference for young people who have alcohol or substance-abuse problems or have parents with those problems. It is held at the Lyon Park Center in Durham during spring and fall breaks. Every year that the Vatavuks go to the conference, the children and teenagers greet them with hugs and big smiles.

"They don't get much guidance and care and love," Vatavuk says.

Her husband became like a father to them. Some have a parent in jail; some have both parents in jail.

"Many of these kids come from all over Durham," she says. "And they have no adult supervision."

Last year, the conference hosted a jewelry-making class. It turned out to be more than just making jewelry.

"As they made the jewelry, they would talk about the problems in their lives. They talk to you, they pour their heart out to you," Vatavuk says. She remembers one girl made jewelry for her aunt because she thought her aunt was the only person who cared about her.

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