Two kind and generous departed souls, Bambi and Nick Venetucci, would be glad to know that despite unexpected obstacles — much like what Bambi faced in her life — the great pumpkin giveaway they cherished carries on every October, relatives say.

“It’s very sad that it’s not like it was because of the water situation, but I think they’d be happy they’re continuing the tradition of getting kids on the land,” said Nancy Dallinger, a niece of Bambi’s who lives in Arvada.

The late Venetuccis, who dated for 27 years before marrying in 1984 when Bambi was in her late 50s and Nick in his early 70s, were well-known in the Pikes Peak region for opening the Venetucci Farm’s 60-acre pumpkin patch every fall.

Youngsters would frolic around the vast fields and lay claim to a delightful orange orb they could take home for free.

Valerie Freyre, who was born and raised in Colorado Springs, remembers her trips as a child to find the perfect pumpkin.

“I’m so glad they’re still doing it — every kid should have this opportunity,” she said on Thursday, the kickoff of this year’s monthlong event.

Her youngest son, Declan, rated the morning “a 9 out of 10!” And he said he loved being there. “Just because. There’s pumpkins!”

The first group of kindergartners from Stratton Meadows Elementary School learned from Catamount Institute staff about how plants like pumpkins grow, listened to a pumpkin-themed storybook and sang a fun song about stems, leaves, roots, flowers, sun, rain, air and soil.

Finally, they wiggled in a line to the pumpkin patch on the other side of the farm off South U.S. Highway 85 in Security.

The outing marked 5-year-old Ellie Jimenez’s first bus ride and first school field trip.

“She’s been looking forward to this since school started,” said her mom, Corrie Betts. “It’s pretty great.”

Ellie said she was looking forward to scooping out the innards, cooking the seeds and putting eyes on her pumpkin.

What’s grown into an unforgettable adventure for kids began in the 1950s, when Nick was driving a truckload of pumpkins from his family’s farm to a local grocery store and came across some kids playing on the side of the road.

“He decided they all needed a pumpkin, so he stopped the truck and gave them pumpkins and went on this way. That’s how it all started,” Dallinger said.

Nick became known around town as “The Pumpkin Man.” His sweetheart, Bambi, being a kindergarten and first grade teacher at her alma mater, the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind in Colorado Springs, for 30 years, started bringing classes over to the farm, as did other teachers.

Bambi turned her blindness into a source of strength, Dallinger said. She became the first blind student at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where Dallinger said she navigated life mostly without a cane and arrived at the right classes by counting the steps from her dorm room. Other students read class materials aloud and assisted her with lab work.

She won Colorado Teacher of the Year in 1983.

“Her classroom was like no other — it was very sensory,” Dallinger said. “She had a cuckoo clock, a train, all sorts of activities. Each child had a brailler, and she taught them how to read, write and do math using it.”

Nick’s parents and siblings including his brother, Tony, ran the family farm, which raised hogs and grew corn, squash, tomatoes, peppers and pumpkins.

Other relatives such as Dallinger and her husband, Curt, helped with the pumpkin giveaway, which ballooned to host up to 50,000 school children a year. In 1978, when Charles Kuralt did his “On the Road” show from Venetucci Farm, Nick grew 30 tons of pumpkins just to give away.

“At least 20 buses a day would come, with each carrying 60 kids throughout October. Bambi would keep the schedule in her head — she had a really good memory,” Dallinger said. “And then there were the weekends, which were nuts with so many families.”

This year, 1,500 kindergartners from the area will pick out a pumpkin.

And every weekend this month will feature a fall festival, with activities, games and items to purchase, including pumpkins, produced by the farm’s general manager and operator, Gather Mountain Blooms, which also grows flowers on the land and runs an events center.

Contamination in the aquifer that came to light in 2016 forced the farm to stop using the land for agricultural purposes. The Venetuccis, who did not have any children, bequeathed the farm to what’s now the Pikes Peak Community Foundation. It’s now under the auspices of the Pikes Peak Real Estate Foundation, an offshoot of the community foundation.

Now, pumpkins are trucked in from a farm in Pueblo, said Sam Clark, executive director of Pikes Peak Real Estate Foundation.

The Venetuccis had one rule: children must be able to carry out the pumpkins they selected from the vast land that stretched from near Highway 65-67 southwest to Fountain Creek and Interstate 25.

That still holds true.

“There are two pieces about the Venetucci legacy that are important: the pumpkin giveaway and the farm, and Bambi as an educator, which sometimes gets missed,” Clark said. “For many kids in the region, their first big field trip is coming to Venetucci Farm. It’s an honor to keep that legacy as part of our cultural fabric.”

The lessons imparted by Catamount Institute, a 28-year-old nonprofit that connects kids ages 2 to 18 to the outdoors through 13 different environmental education and adventure programs, are rooted in state science standards, said Maury Peterson, executive director of Catamount Institute.

“We want them to not just see there’s a pumpkin in that patch but learn the story behind the different parts of the plant,” she said. “To get them excited and interested in nature and being outdoors.”

Throughout Bambi’s life, there were plenty of moments of tears and distress, and acceptance and indifference from others, she wrote in her 1996 autobiography, “Dammi La Mano.” The title means “Give Me Your Hand” in Italian and references her father taking her hand and leading her to see by feeling the world around her.

To overcome adversity, she retained the advice of a college chaplain, who encouraged her to take inventory of what she had and concentrate on that — instead of what was missing.

“Years of spiritual growth have taught me that adversity can be the measure of failure or success,” Bambi wrote in her book. “It is my firm belief that with God working through me, I must extend myself more than halfway to reach out and touch those who do not understand because they have not walked in my shoes. Yes, a gift disguised, but once recognized has brought love, joy and confidence.”