A John Deere Tractor, a Legacy and a $100,000 Dream for Deaf Children

For seven years, ASL Friends has worked toward a $100,000 goal to help make the lessons of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood accessible to deaf children through American Sign Language (ASL).

The nonprofit announced on October 11, 2026 it had achieved its long-sought fundraising plateau during its annual ASL Fore ALL charity golf event in Naples, Florida. The achievement carried special meaning for Kimberly Nussbaum, the organization’s founder and president. A bequest from the late Donald Kovacic, a former ASL Friends board member, treasurer, and close friend and colleague of Nussbaum, helped advance a mission rooted in his own experience growing up Deaf.

A familiar program, a new opportunity

The project, called Mister Rogers’ ASL Friends, aims to bring the warmth and life lessons of Fred Rogers to deaf children through programming designed to make language and communication more accessible.

The original Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood helped generations of preschoolers explore emotions, relationships, kindness, and self-worth. ASL Friends hopes to extend that experience to children who can benefit from seeing the program’s messages communicated in American Sign Language.

The five special episodes will be produced in partnership with James DeBee, an award-winning producer and director who is Deaf. According to Nussbaum, DeBee and his team will use specialized filming and editing techniques to incorporate Deaf signers into the episodes, allowing the characters’ messages to be visually conveyed through American Sign Language.

The goal is not simply to translate a familiar television program. It is to give children opportunities to learn from people who share their experiences while providing families with another resource to support early language development.

Approximately 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, Nussbaum noted in remarks at the October 11 golf event at Hammock Bay Golf and Country Club in Naples. For many families, learning how to communicate effectively with a deaf child can be an unfamiliar journey.

Early access to language helps children develop the ability to learn, form relationships, and participate in the world around them. ASL Friends hopes the special episodes will help children and families build those connections.

Preliminary research involving a pilot episode offered encouraging results, Nussbaum reported. Deaf children and their parents learned 70 signs from a single 30-minute program.

For Kovacic, the importance of that opportunity was deeply personal.

A man who understood what was missing

Kovacic was the youngest of 12 children and grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania. When his brother died unexpectedly, he stepped forward to manage the family’s 60-acre farm and care for his mother for the next 20 years.

Family was central to his life. After his mother died, Kovacic moved to Pittsburgh to be closer to other relatives. He brought a cherished reminder of his rural upbringing with him: his John Deere tractor.

The tractor remained a source of joy, connecting him to the farm life that had helped shape his character.

Kovacic was Deaf. As a child, he had not been permitted to use sign language in school. He learned American Sign Language as an adult and became increasingly passionate about ensuring that deaf children would have access to it much earlier in life.

He believed that learning ASL as a child could have opened educational opportunities that were not available to him. His experience gave him a personal understanding of the challenges that can arise when children lack early access to a language they can use to communicate and learn.

That conviction became part of his commitment to ASL Friends.

Kovacic served on the nonprofit’s board and as its treasurer. He also worked as the bookkeeper for the Brain Health Center founded by Dr. Paul Nussbaum, Kimberly’s husband, in Pittsburgh, sharing an office with Kimberly for many years.

Their professional relationship grew into a friendship built on trust, hard work, and an attention to detail that sometimes kept them in the office long after the workday ended.

“If the books were off, we would stay well after hours chasing down a missing penny!” Kimberly Nussbaum recalled.

A gift that carried his mission forward

A few months after Kovacic’s death, ASL Friends received a letter revealing that he had left a portion of his life savings to the nonprofit.

The unexpected bequest helped advance the organization toward its $100,000 fundraising goal, supporting a project that reflected the very opportunities Kovacic wished he had received as a child.

His gift was more than a financial contribution. It was a continuation of his belief that deaf children deserve access to language, education, and role models who understand their experiences.

In her remarks announcing the fundraising achievement, Nussbaum returned to the familiar children’s story The Little Engine That Could, which had served as a metaphor for ASL Friends’ seven-year climb toward its goal.

Then she offered a personal twist.

“I am revealing that our Little Engine is actually a John Deere tractor,” she said, smiling.

A photograph of Kovacic and his beloved tractor stood at the front of the dais. Moments later, Nussbaum announced that the $100,000 goal had been reached, drawing thunderous applause from the golfers, friends and supporters gathered for the post-event luncheon.

The announcement came on Kovacic’s birthday, adding another layer of meaning to the milestone.

For those who knew him, the moment brought together the many parts of his life: his devotion to family, his affection for the tractor, his friendship with Nussbaum and his commitment to helping deaf children gain opportunities he believed every child deserved.

With the fundraising goal reached, ASL Friends can move forward with plans for the five special episodes in partnership with DeBee.

“Many hearing parents have deaf children and they struggle to communicate with them,” DeBee said through his nationally certified sign language interpreter, Joel Duggan. “This video series will help open the door to language for deaf children.”

Kovacic’s bequest was deeply personal, but the achievement also belongs to the donors, sponsors, volunteers, friends and supporters who helped ASL Friends reach its seven-year goal.

His beloved John Deere tractor was a reminder of the farm life that shaped him. Now, it also serves as a symbol of his enduring legacy: helping make language, learning and Deaf role models more accessible to children whose opportunities he wanted to be greater than his own.

To learn more about the work of ASL Friends or to donate, visit www.aslfriends.org

Funds solicited for ASL Friends, Inc. are independent of Fred Rogers Productions.