For those who crave Girl Scout Cookies, the wait is over. Cookie sales began on Jan. 24 and will run through mid-March.

Locally, people can find Girl Scouts selling cookies on weekends at area businesses. Booth locations include Lowe's, 340 Crossings Blvd., Elverson; Walmart, 100 Crossings Blvd., Elverson; AJ's Family Pizzeria, 204 Crossings Blvd., Elverson; Boyer's Food Market, 200 W. First St., Birdsboro; and Italian Delite, 113 E. Main St., Birdsboro.

Alexis Price and Oakley Bamford, members of Junior Troop 1465, which meets at Robeson Elementary Center and at St. John's Lutheran Church in Birdsboro, were busy on a recent Sunday at the cookie booth located inside Lowe's Home Improvement in the Morgantown Crossings shopping center, along with their "cookie moms," Katie Price and Macall Bamford, respectively. The booth was open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. with Scouts from different troops working in two-hour shifts.

Katie noted that this is the last year that Scouts will sell Toast-Yay! cookies. The cookies, which were introduced in 2021, are shaped like French toast and dipped in icing and bear the Girl Scout trefoil symbol.

Other cookie varieties include Adventurefuls, which are brownie-like cookies with a caramel-flavored cream; Trefoils, which are shortbread cookies; Lemonades, which are shortbread cookies with a lemon-flavored icing; and Caramel deLites, which are crispy cookies coated with caramel and coconut and drizzled with chocolate stripes. Peanut butter varieties are Peanut Butter Patties dipped in chocolate and the Peanut Butter Sandwich, which is an oatmeal cookie with a peanut butter filling.

"Thin Mints and Peanut Butter Patties are the biggest sellers," noted Oakley.

Those who visit the local booths also have an opportunity to donate cookies to Hometown Heroes, a program adopted in 2019 by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania (GSEP). "We disburse cookies to different food pantries," Katie noted. Past recipients have included Helping Harvest and Hope Rescue Mission.

The goal of the cookie sales, according to GSEP, is to teach Girl Scouts five essential skills - goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics. "They learn manners, salesmanship, people skills and customer service," said Katie.

"They learn how to (handle) money and make change," Macall added. "They also learn how to run a business because they are selling a product."

The Scouts are also able to keep a portion of the money for troop activities. "We are saving it up for a fun trip," said Alexis, noting that one of the troop's options will be visiting a water park.

In addition to troop activities, the Scouts take part in community service projects. "We are going to the Animal Rescue League in February, and they will be making toys for the animals," said Katie, noting that the troop members also volunteered at the Hay Creek Festival and the Apple Festival at Historic Joanna Furnace.

According to www.girlscouts.org, Girls Scouts of the USA sells about 200 million boxes of cookies in a normal year. The organization calls the Girl Scout cookie program "the largest entrepreneurial program in the world."

For more information about the cookies and to search for other cookie booth locations, visit www.gsep.org.