In addition to the traditional favorites like Thin Mints and Peanut Butter Patties, Girl Scouts are offering a new choice for cookie lovers this year - Adventurefuls, which are brownie cookies topped with caramel-flavored crème.

The new cookie, as well as other selections, can be found at Girl Scout cookie booths throughout the area, including the Parkesburg Shopping Center, 100 Commons Drive, Parkesburg, where two separate cookie booths are open on weekends at both entrances to the Parkesburg Walmart.

On a recent Saturday morning, Keryn Shortlidge, a member of Ambassador Troop 4746, which meets at the Lions Club building in Christiana, was selling cookies outside Walmart with her mother, Kerri, the troop leader.

The sales were brisk despite the wintry weather. "It was 10 degrees when we got here," said Kerri, noting that traditionally girls work at the booths in two-hour shifts.

Keryn said that the most popular cookies sold each year are Thin Mints, but that people have been curious about the new selection. "It's brownie-inspired, but it's crunchy. It tastes like a brownie, and it has caramel and sea salt," she noted.

According to http://www.girlscouts.org, the cookie sales primarily help girls to develop five skills: decision making, money management, goal setting, people skills and business ethics. "We learn to get really good with money, with running things and talking to customers," said Keryn.

In addition to the new cookie, Girl Scout Cookie selections this year include Caramel deLites, which are vanilla cookies topped with caramel and toasted coconut covered in chocolate stripes; Thin Mints, which are chocolate wafers dipped in mint chocolate; Peanut Butter Patties, which are crispy vanilla cookies layered with peanut butter and covered in chocolate; Peanut Butter Sandwich, which are oatmeal cookies with a peanut butter filling; and Shortbreads. Also offered at a slightly higher price per box is the gluten-free Caramel Chocolate Chip, which includes caramel and semisweet chocolate chips with a touch of sea salt in a chewy cookie.

Those who visit the booths have an opportunity to donate to the Operation Cookies From Home program, which provides Girl Scout Cookies to men and women serving in the military, and the Hometown Heroes, a program adopted in 2019 by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania (GSEP).

"At the end of the cookie sales, whatever cookies we have left get shipped to the troops," said Kerri. "We also offer them to hometown heroes - (local) firemen and EMTs."

"Last year, we took cookies to the Cancer Center in West Chester," Keryn pointed out. "We gave every nurse, doctor and staff member a cookie. It's (a way) to give back to the community."

Cookie sales will run through March. Specific locations of cookie sales can be found by entering a ZIP code at http://www.gsep.org. Information about other ways to order cookies, including a Cookie Finder app, can be found at http://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/how-to-buy-cookies.html.