If the Girl Scouts ever decide to create a badge for Dedication, it should have Ronnie Backenstoe’s picture on it.
Backenstoe, 98, joined the Girl Scouts in 1932 at age 10, and has been involved ever since. The Wernersville, Pennsylvania, resident has been selling cookies for the last 88 years, both as a member and a leader, and is still active with a local troop. The girls recently visited Backenstoe at her retirement community, where they set up shop and sold cookies to residents.
Things are different now than they were in 1932, when there were just three types of cookies and each box cost 15 cents. Troop leader Barbara Allen Perelli told WFMZ the girls love Backenstoe, and she always makes them laugh. “Her stamina, her energy, her mind — she’s non-stop,” Perelli said.
Backenstoe gets great joy from selling cookies alongside her fellow troop members, and said being a Girl Scout shaped who she is today. “I think it was just part of living, and that’s really what Girl Scouting is — it teaches you how to live,” Backenstoe told WFMZ.
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