Troop 461 meets in the Fellowship Hall of the Zion Mennonite Church on Monday nights from 7:30 p.m. Troop 461 traces its heritage back to 1936 and the formation of Troop 2 of Souderton, Pennsylvania, at a time when scout troops were numbered by communities, rather than by councils. Throughout most of its existence, Troop 461 has been sponsored by the Zion Mennonite Church of Souderton, Pennsylvani
a. Current Troop 461 has been in continuous existence since 1956 when Harold L. Frederick, Jr., reorganised Troop 2 for the Zion Mennonite Church. Like all scout troops, Troop 461 has seen its membership grow to a high of 85 scouts in the 1970s and dwindle to a low of 12 scouts in the mid-1980s. Currently, the troop has approximately 13 Scouts registered. In the 1970s, the Boy Scouts went from community strips, which identified scout troops by the communities in which they were organised, to council shoulder patches, wherein all scout troops, cub packs, and explorer posts, would wear the shoulder patch of the council to which they belong. Troop 461 is proud of its community involvement and heritage and continues to wear the red and white "Souderton PA" community strip as opposed to the now officially favoured council shoulder patch. The troop is not alone in its retention of the original community strips as scout troops and cub packs in Franconia, Telford, Hatfield, Lansdale, North Wales and Royersford have likewise retained their community strips. The importance of the community strip to Troop 461 was heightened in 1996 when the Cradle of Liberty County was formed when Valley Forge Council merged with Philadelphia Council, and now the new Cradle of Liberty Council had two Troop 461s, ours and one in Philadelphia. There have been a number of occasions when Council officials have mixed up the two Troop 461s.
