About Us

Hands On Stow is an organization focused on keeping the city of Stow clean! Using a single day each year and year-round commitments from organizations and individuals, Hands On Stow strives to make Stow a great and CLEAN place to live and work.

Tom McKinney and Matt White, two Stow residents, created Hands On Stow in 2004. In its first year, Hands On Stow enabled some 50-60 volunteers to clean up the streets of Stow. With unmistakable yellow shirts, these crews could be seen on any given Saturday combing the main thoroughfares of the city looking for and picking up trash. With the help of the City of Stow and Stow Mayor, Karen Fritschel, hundreds of bags of trash were collected.

Now, we have more than 100 volunteers! Hands On Stow hopes to continue to grow and someday include thousands of volunteers. Its major event, Hands On Stow Day is now part of the Stow Pride Festival, a two-week-long festival dedicated to all that Stow has to offer.