Volunteer Of The Month: Charles Germain

The Magothy River has served the community for generations. Throughout the years, the river’s water quality has worsened, and many people are working to restore the river to its former glory.

One of those people is Severna Park resident and filmmaker Charles Germain, who volunteers with the Magothy River Association (MRA) to educate the community about the rich history of the Magothy River.

Germain was born in France and moved to the United States after retiring in 2013 to attend Boston University. Currently, he makes films for Native American tribes. In 2017, he released a film called Northern Arapaho Suicide Prevention Project about the Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming, and he is working on a film with the Nottoway Tribe in Virginia.

Germain lives on Cattail Creek and frequently sails on the Magothy River and the Chesapeake Bay.

Because he lived on the water, Germain wanted to be more involved in the community surrounding the waterways. That is how he started volunteering with the MRA in 2014.

“I contacted Paul Spadaro, the president, and I did a film with them right away for the oyster program,” Germain said. “At that time, they were growing oysters to clean the river.”

He has produced everything from call-to-action videos to reenactments, but his favorite project with the MRA is the Living History Project, which is a series of documentaries about historical facts and sites surrounding the Magothy River.

“We came to the conclusion that people should know that the river was clean at one point, so we interviewed people who were here in the 1940s and 1950s,” said Germain

Germain has worked on Living History videos for many local historical sites such as Goshen Farm and the Stone House.

“In a film we did four years ago called Beach House on the Magothy River, there was a woman who had had an old house on the Magothy River in the early 1950s,” said Germain. “She said they would live off of the river for three months. They would be crabbing, oystering, fishing and living very well out of the river.”

The goal of the Living History Project is to show people the impact that overdevelopment and runoff have had on the Magothy River over time. Each educational video calls the community to action.

“You have to show the people that the land was rich,” said Germain. “The water was clean. It's still a nice place to live, but we don't have the quality of water that the people used to have.”

Germain hopes that his work with the MRA encourages Severna Park residents to make the conscious decision to take better care of the environment and limit behavior that has a negative impact on the river.

Germain’s films are featured on the Magothy River Association Facebook page and on the Charles Germain YouTube channel.

Home Films

The Magothy River Association is looking for old 8-millimeter home films of the river for future projects. To donate or learn more about the MRA, contact Paul Spadaro at president@magothyriver.org.