Nick Venetucci
Dominico T. "Nick" Venetucci (1911–2004) was rancher and farmer in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Venetucci, also known as "The Pumpkin Man" for his annual giveaways of thousands of free pumpkins to area youth, gained national recognition in a 1985 article in The Reader's Digest magazine. Venetucci served between 30,000 and 50,000 young people a year with his annual philanthropy and is estimated to have donated over a million pumpkins to Colorado children over the course of his life.
Dominico Venetucci, known to his friends as "Nick," was born July 23, 1911 in the community of Papetown, near Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was one of seven children of Nicholas and Marguerita Venetucci, immigrants from Italy. His father worked as a coal miner, with the family slowly saving enough money to purchase a small farm in 1936.
Venetucci worked for his family orchard and was a caddy at the Patty Jewett and Broadmoor golf courses.
In 1933, at the age of 22, Venetucci began a baseball career in the New York Yankees organization. As a catcher he was moved from Class D to Class A in the minor leagues. Venetucci's career was interrupted when his family bought the farm in Security, Colorado, and Venetucci went home to work on the family farm.
In 1942, 800 acres (3.2 km2) of the Venetucci farm were sold to the U.S. Army for $10 an acre to assist in the establishment of Camp Carson. Only 210 acres (0.85 km2) were left in the family's hands after the sale.
Venetucci married his wife, Bambi, in 1984, following a courtship of 27 years.
The Venetucci pumpkin giveaways began in the 1950s. One day, Venetucci recalled, he was driving with a load of pumpkins and he just began stopping and giving away pumpkins to every child he saw. Later, children began stopping by his patch and receiving a free pumpkin on the site and a tradition was born. In all it is reckoned that more than 1 million pumpkins were given away by the Venetucci farm over half a century of Halloweens.
Over the years, Venetucci won many awards at the Colorado State Fair for his farm products.
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