POWW was founded by Jeff Lange of Piqua, OH. Jeff has always loved paddling down the Great Miami River and local waters of the area. After a 25 years of living in Atlanta, Jeff came home and was saddened to see the trash in the local waters. He decided to take matters into his own hands. Jeff then created the non-profit, Protecting Our Water-Ways (POWW). The idea was simple, get volunteers to canoe (or walk) down the river and pick up trash as they go and have some fun along the way.
Today, with the help of our volunteers, POWW is responsible for a much cleaner Great Miami River. People have noticed and are fishing, kayaking, canoeing, and visiting our local waters more frequently than before. POWW has removed over 1971 tires from the GMR and has logged over 15,000 community man hours.
Over 16 different sectional teams, like POWW, converge on the GMR every July and late in October to be part of the Clean Sweep of The Great Miami River. Over 1000 volunteers typically get over 15 tons out of the river every year.
