A Four-Year-Old Kept Waving at His Neighbors. They Became the Village He Was Missing.

Roman Butzlaff was lonely after his family changed. Then one neighbor returned his hello — and a North Carolina street began acting like a community.

CONCORD, N.C. — Four-year-old Roman Butzlaff kept waving and saying hello to his neighbors. Eventually, they stopped being strangers — and became the extended family he did not have nearby.

Roman is the subject of a July 10 “On the Road” report by CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman. The segment is only three minutes long, but the story inside it is bigger: a child’s repeated, uncomplicated friendliness appears to have changed the habits of an entire street.

Roman’s mother, Anna Butzlaff, told CBS that greeting people is the first thing her son wants to do each day. But his cheerfulness had been covering loneliness. His parents separated about a year earlier, his father moved to Florida, and his grandparents lived out of state.

Then Wade Fulgum, an older neighbor across the street, returned more than Roman’s wave. He came over to meet the boy who kept saying hello. They began spending time together, and other neighbors followed.

Soon, the adults were no longer just faces Roman saw from his home. They attended his soccer, basketball and baseball games. Some showed up for swimming lessons and his preschool open house. When Roman had a birthday party, the guest list was made up of the older neighbors who had become his people.

Anna acknowledged that the attention initially felt unusual because she barely knew some of them. What changed her mind was straightforward: Roman was happy.

CBS reported that Roman has now drawn together roughly a dozen neighbors — people who said they might otherwise have remained strangers despite living close to one another. His mother said the loneliness is gone. Photographs of his new circle now cover the family refrigerator.

The familiar phrase says it takes a village to raise a child. Roman’s story runs in the other direction: sometimes it takes a child to introduce the village to itself.

That does not make every stranger safe or erase the boundaries parents need to set. It does show what can happen when ordinary friendliness is answered with responsible, visible and sustained care. Roman did not organize a community program or ask adults to fix social isolation. He waved. One neighbor paid attention. Then others did too.

The result was not merely a sweet moment for television. It was a small piece of social infrastructure built from repetition: a greeting became a conversation, conversations became attendance, and attendance became belonging.

Video: Steve Hartman, “On the Road,” CBS News, July 10, 2026. Embedded from CBS News.

Source: “A 4-year-old boy’s simple habit of waving to his neighbors transformed his North Carolina community,” CBS News, published July 10, 2026.

Reporting note: This article summarizes and comments on CBS News’ original reporting and recording. The BL:UF did not independently interview Roman Butzlaff, his family or the neighbors shown in the segment.