Samantha Busch will receive a meaningful honor later this month as she continues the work she and her late husband, Kyle Busch, spent years building together.
New York Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodón and his wife, Ashley, will honor Samantha with the Seeds of Hope Award at their third annual Willow Gala on Aug. 24 in Brooklyn, New York, according to Us Weekly.
The recognition stems from a connection between the Rodón and Busch families that extends far beyond their respective ties to Major League Baseball and NASCAR. Both families experienced fertility struggles, and both ultimately turned those deeply personal experiences into an effort to help others facing similar obstacles.
For Ashley, Samantha’s advocacy initially stood out long before the upcoming honor.
“Samantha has been a champion behind IVF in totality for so long, and honestly, someone brought [us] one of her videos,” Ashley told Us Weekly exclusively. “She was talking about IVF coverage, and she just has such a passion when she talks about it. And I remember seeing it, and I was like, ‘These are the foundations we want to partner with.’”
Now, following Kyle’s death at age 41, the Rodón family is recognizing Samantha for continuing a mission that became such an important part of the Busches’ lives.
Samantha Busch Continues the Mission She Built With Kyle
Samantha will receive the Seeds of Hope Award for her work with the Samantha and Kyle Busch Bundle of Joy Fund, which helps families access financial assistance for fertility treatment.
It is a cause rooted in the Busches’ own journey.
Kyle and Samantha welcomed their son, Brexton, through IVF in 2015 after experiencing fertility struggles. Their daughter, Lennix, was born via surrogate in 2022.
Instead of keeping that experience private, the couple used their platform to help families facing many of the same financial and emotional hurdles. Their Bundle of Joy Fund has provided grants to families pursuing fertility treatment, turning one of the most difficult chapters of their own lives into a way to help others build theirs.
Ashley told Us Weekly that working with the Busches became a natural fit for the Rodón family.
“It was a natural fit for us, for them,” she said. “We’ve been able to give them a bunch of grants. … [Samantha has] always used her platform for good and to help other people. Her journey never ended. She used it, and now she gets to carry on Kyle’s legacy and what they’ve built through this foundation, and we’re just really excited to highlight the work that they’ve been doing for so long.”
That legacy has taken on even greater meaning since Kyle’s death.
Ashley also pointed to Samantha’s resilience and her two children as she continues moving forward while preserving the work she and Kyle created together.
“Her story of resilience, of starting her family, and she has two beautiful children who, obviously, are the light of her entire world right now and keep her going,” Ashley said. “And just the legacy of resilience through losing Kyle and and just keeping his legacy alive.”
Fertility Struggles Connected the Rodón and Busch Families
The Rodón family’s connection to the cause is personal, too.
Ashley experienced multiple pregnancy losses before becoming pregnant with the couple’s daughter, Willow. She and Carlos were preparing to begin IVF at the time, according to Us Weekly. The couple later welcomed two sons, Bo and Silo.
Ashley said she and Carlos spent more than $10,000 simply trying to understand why they were having difficulty conceiving, an experience that made the financial barriers surrounding fertility care impossible to ignore.
“I remember looking [Carlos] and saying, ‘How does anyone afford this?’” she recalled. “We are in such a unique position where I’ll spend whatever it takes to have a family, like we’re not going to not have children, but how does anyone else do that?”
Carlos acknowledged that his own experience changed his perspective as well.
“I thought it was pretty easy to make a child,” he told Us Weekly, before recalling that he once asked a teammate whether he and his wife planned to have children. “I didn’t know. I was 22 years old, a rookie.”
Years later, the shared experiences of the Rodón and Busch families have created an unexpected connection between two corners of the sports world.
The Willow Gala will give the Rodón family an opportunity to recognize Samantha for helping other families navigate a journey both couples understand firsthand. It will also honor a cause that became an enduring part of what Samantha and Kyle built together, one Samantha is now carrying forward in his memory.
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