COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Pumpkin picking is hard work but leave it to the Air Force to turn it into an efficient system. Their 12 person group of volunteers divvied up the patch and their team into specific duties the cutters, throwers, and the catchers.

"A couple of them hit me in the chest and knocked the wind out of me but for the most part we're just trying to give them a light toss get them out and we're having a good time," Troy McCourt, an Air Force Peterson Base volunteer said.

By the time the 2-hour shift was over Saturday's group of volunteers from the National Charity League and Peterson Air Force Base collected 500-1,000 pumpkins.

Pumpkins that will all be given away to thousands of local children starting October 1st.

"We try to come up with activities that are hands on where they can be out in the field and learning about how we grow food and how we raise animals here at the farm," Dave Rudin with Venetucci Farm said.

Connecting locals to the source of their food meant getting dirty and maneuvering through a field of weeds that come up to your knees.

"You dive into the weeds and you find pumpkins that have had a bite taken out by a deer you find green pumpkins little, big it's sort of like an easter egg hunt," Jennifer Sundman, a National Charity League volunteer said.

So the hunt is on for the best pumpkin in the patch and while everyone loves the big ones it's tradition to have the kids only take what they can carry.