98-Year-Old Girl Scout Has Been Selling Cookies Since 1932: 'She's Non-Stop'

By Amanda Thomason February 13, 2020 at 11:06am

It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year — the time when people wait eagerly to snap up colorful boxes of seasonal cookies.

Some stockpile, some binge, but most find it difficult to pass up on Girl Scout cookies.

While the tables are staples in front of many stores, the online world has been inundated as well, with parents doing their part to advertise their kids’ wares on social media and reaching deeper into markets and pockets.

Most of the participants waiting behind the green-clothed tables or going door-to-door are parents or young girl scouts, but Veronica “Ronnie” Backenstoe is still keeping up with the best of them at the respectable age of 98.

Now living in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, Backenstoe has been involved with the Girl Scouts in one capacity or another for almost her entire life.

“I became a Girl Scout in 1932!” she told WFMZ-TV. “My mom said, ‘When you’re 10,’ so when I was 10, I was ready to go!”

Backenstoe credits the organization with preparing her for life, and she has certainly learned many valuable lessons along the way.

“I think that it was just part of living, and that’s what really girl scouting is, it teaches you how to live,” she said.

“I don’t know if you ever tried to get into a uniform in a pup tent. I did. It’s not easy!”

. @girlscouts Veronica “Ronnie” Backenstoe was all smiles Tuesday afternoon as she completed a journey she started decades ago. @cedarcrestcolle @GirlScoutsEPenn https://t.co/L6ObovR2yf pic.twitter.com/WA1VYB5DO7

— Jeremy Long (@jeremymlong) August 1, 2018

“I was ready to be prepared, to obey orders, to be courteous, cheerful and clean in thought, word and deed,” she wrote in a poem, according to the Reading Eagle. “The Girl Scouts had planted a seed.”

Her spirit and charm are recognized by those around her, and while she’s been retired from active duty for more than four decades, it’s clear that she still holds all things Girl Scout dear.

“Her stamina, her energy, her mind, she’s non-stop,” Barbara Allen Perelli, a troop leader, told WFMZ-TV.

“In general, she just makes me laugh when I’m with her,” Amber Holl, a senior Girl Scout, added.

“Oh, I love it, oh yes,” Backenstoe said of selling the notorious packaged sweets (the peanut butter ones are her favorite). “I could always eat some cookies.”

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