Thirty pallets of pumpkins, squash and gourds arrived at a Piedmont field Sept. 26, opening the Wildwood Dads' Club Pumpkin Patch a week earlier than usual. The fundraiser runs through Halloween at 898 Red Rock Road, at the corner of Moraga Avenue, and is the club’s biggest annual moneymaker, with proceeds supporting Wildwood Elementary School.
According to the East Bay Times, the pumpkins, squash and gourds weighed 13,010 pounds, and 48 hay bales added roughly 3,600 pounds, for a total opening-day haul of 16,610 pounds, or just over 8.3 tons. The patch displayed 28 varieties opening weekend, reportedly its largest assortment to date. Its precise start date is unclear: the current report describes it as a tradition dating to the early 1980s, while earlier accounts give different timelines.
Where the Fundraising Goes — and When the Patch Began
The Wildwood Dads’ Club says its month-long Pumpkin Patch raises more than $20,000 for the school. Piedmont Unified School District describes parent and support clubs as independent organizations with separate boards that coordinate fundraising and volunteer efforts and support general education, enrichment and extracurricular programs, including through teacher grants, according to the district and the Wildwood Dads’ Club. The patch’s history is not settled by the available accounts. An East Bay Times report in 2017 said the event began in 1993 and was in its 24th year; a 2019 Piedmont Exedra report called that season the patch’s 26th year. Both accounts place its start later than the early-1980s estimate, and the reports also describe the patch at different locations: 951 Moraga Avenue at Maxwellton Road in 2017 and Coaches Field in 2019.
Same Dads, Same Dedication
Piedmont resident Matt Derrigo is running the patch for a third year, alongside organizers Brian Fischer and Anthony Guarino, according to the East Bay Times. The patch is organized by the Wildwood Dads' Club, whose volunteer-led fundraiser supports the school.
Wildwood parents and guardians can sign up for a volunteer shift, typically a two-person team handling sales and helping customers, the East Bay Times reports. The club has traditionally drawn volunteers from families with children in kindergarten through fifth grade, with transitional kindergarten families increasingly taking part.
Hours, Location and What's for Sale
The patch is open weekdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and weekends from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Oct. 31, per the East Bay Times. That matches the general weekday-afternoon, weekend-daytime pattern the patch has kept in recent years — in 2025, Piedmont Exedra listed the same weekday and weekend hours running through Oct. 30, and the Piedmont Exedra reported the 2024 patch closed on Oct. 27 with identical daily hours. Coverage of past seasons has also referred to the site as being off Moraga Avenue at Coaches Field, in addition to the Red Rock Road address used in more recent listings.
Orange carving pumpkins are the most popular by volume, especially as Halloween approaches, while the American Tondo is a perennial green-pumpkin favorite. A designated family photo area is new this year. The patch has no rides; 510families.com has highlighted its open space and guessing game in past seasons.
A Giant Pumpkin and a Free One for Kids
The Dads Club brings in an Atlantic Giant pumpkin every year, and this season's visitors can enter a guess-the-weight contest for a shot at winning it outright, with the winning pumpkin delivered to their home before Halloween. It's a tradition that echoed in 2024 as well, when Piedmont Exedra reported patrons had a shot at winning a giant pumpkin nicknamed Giant Jack by guessing its weight.
Kids can also walk away with a free Wee-B-Little pumpkin by completing an online coloring sheet and bringing it to the patch, an offer that runs through Oct. 31. Organizers have relied heavily on old-fashioned promotion to spread the word: signs went up around town ahead of opening day, and a survey conducted a couple of years ago found that signage was the most common way customers learned about the patch, even though it's also listed on Google Maps and on 510 Families' guide to East Bay pumpkin patches.
