People of the Point: Bennett Blaustein

Since retiring to Point Roberts 10 years ago, Bennett Blaustein has been filming aspects of life on the Point and posting them on YouTube. These videos can be accessed on his website pointroberts.tv. This volunteer venture is bred in the bone for Bennett, whose parents instilled in him the value of giving back. His archival labor of love includes filming speakers at meetings, festivals, and events. During Covid, his filming of the July 4th parade was important for those who were sadly missing this community. His video of the Point Roberts Garden Club tour – all nine gardens – has had 30,000 views. Since Bennett initiated Point Roberts TV nine years ago, he has posted 300+ videos about our community.

Born in Buffalo, New York, Bennett and his family moved to rural Maryland soon after his birth, where his father was interning at Johns Hopkins Hospital to specialize as an OBGYN. When he was 11, his family moved again to Orange County, California. When Bennett asked his father why he chose the specialty of OBGYN, his father said he’d seen too many people die during WWII. “That one question taught me more about my dad than any other,” Bennett says. His father volunteered at local free clinics and always said how important it was to give back to the community and do good.

His parents wanted him to be a doctor or a lawyer but forgave him for studying radio, TV and film at San Francisco State. His discovery of his love for TV was serendipitous. While writing computer code in a media lab, he got tapped to film a PBS show going on at the time, because the director had an actor but no camera man. Though he had no experience, Bennett was a natural. “I was always glued to the

TV and I knew how everything about television worked.”

After completing university, he did contract work on remote television productions. One memorable contract job was doing camera work on one of the first concert videos for Eddie

Money. Another time he was hired to work on an instructional video for See’s Candies. “I was doing the lighting, and it got very hot. All the chocolates were melting. The crew were invited to eat them, and we were stuffing them down as fast as we could.” Just like in that vintage episode of I Love Lucy and just as funny.

Bennett met his wife Ramona while working at a public access TV studio in Pacifica, south of San Francisco. They decided to settle down and Bennett gave up television production to work as a video services technician at San Jose University. He worked there until his retirement in 2013 when they headed for Point Roberts. For many years prior to this they made regular visits to the Pacific Northwest, and both fell in love with Point Roberts after reading a National Geographic article on unique zip codes.

They spent 10 years visiting the Point before their move and knew what to expect. Bennett offers this advice: “Don’t bring big city ideas into a small town.” He joined local groups to meet people and learned to ask locals two basic questions about ideas to make changes in the community before even suggesting them: “Has it been done before?” and “Is it a good idea?” Bennett said, “You will know from the answers you receive if the ideas are worth pursuing.”

He and Ramona loved hiking the trails at Baker Field, and this fostered his interest in the parks district. Soon he was elected to the board. “I wanted to help maintain the trails – they needed work.” He rerouted 2,000 feet of trails and began a maintenance program. Bennett used a small bequest from his mother to do something good for the community which inspired him to create the Enchanted Forest Trail behind Baker Field. “It was close to the school, we got the kids involved. They painted rocks and little wooden doors that we placed on the trees.” Bennett himself provided many of the gnomes, “but mostly I wanted it to be a community project.” He’ll often be on the trail during the summer talking to visitors who are out hiking. “People seem to appreciate the trail, and there might be up to 100 [hikers] on a summer day.” Many of the visitors are new to Point Roberts and would always ask questions about living here. This motivated Bennett to develop a website for newcomers to help people who are moving here (newtothepoint.org).

Bennett’s encouragement to the community he loves is this: “We have a very small volunteer group here and it’s really important to help out. If you can give your time to help any of our local charities and for any local events then please do.” He has set a strong example, echoing his parents’ belief in giving back by working for the greater good.