2026年7月10日 美国东部时间晚上8:23 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
作者：史蒂夫·哈特曼
史蒂夫·哈特曼是哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的特约记者，他通过每周获奖的专题栏目《在路上》，为观众带来他遇到的普通人的暖心故事。
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北卡罗来纳州康科德市—— 很少有孩子比4岁的罗曼·布茨拉夫更渴望与人建立联系。如果你路过他位于北卡罗来纳州康科德市的家，他一定会挥手并喊一声“嗨”来迎接你。
“他每天醒来都兴奋地想要跟别人打招呼，这仿佛是他最想做的第一件事，”他的母亲安娜·布茨拉夫告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻。
但她也表示，长期以来，罗曼的开朗背后隐藏着内心的孤独。大约一年前，他的父母分手了。父亲搬去了佛罗里达州，祖父母也住在外州。
但幸运的是，他播下的所有善意种子都开始开花结果。一切始于住在罗曼家街对面的韦德·富尔勒姆。
富尔勒姆主动上前结识了这个总在挥手的小男孩。他们开始一起做各种事情。最终，其他邻居也纷纷效仿。他们会停下来和罗曼聊天，甚至一起参与街头赛车之类的活动。
安娜·布茨拉夫说，最初这让她有些不适应，因为她几乎不认识这些邻居。
“我真的不知道该如何应对这种情况，”她说，“但我只看到我的儿子很开心。”
正因如此，当罗曼开始邀请多位邻居参加他的足球赛、篮球赛和棒球赛时，她没有反对。其他邻居也来参加了他的游泳课，甚至他的幼儿园开放日。
到了他的生日派对时，安娜·布茨拉夫明白，她需要邀请的唯一宾客就是他那些老年邻居朋友。
“他喜欢我们在场，还会跑过来拥抱我们，”一位邻居说道。
“他们对他的影响太大了，”安娜·布茨拉夫说，“对他来说，他们是非常特别的人。”
如今，冰箱上贴满了罗曼珍视的所有人的照片。他的母亲说，他内心的孤独感已经消失了。
而他“爱邻如己”的态度也在传播开来。如今，罗曼已经让大约十几位邻居聚在了一起。这些邻居表示，如果不是因为这个小男孩，他们几乎都不会认识彼此——这个曾住在一个社区、却渴望得到邻里关怀的小男孩。
一位邻居说：“看看这个小男孩建立起了什么。”
另一位邻居补充道：“如果全世界都像这个孩子一样，那这个世界将会多么美好，多么美好啊。”
A 4-year-old boy’s simple habit of waving to his neighbors transformed his North Carolina community
July 10, 2026 8:23 PM EDT / CBS News
By Steve Hartman
Steve Hartman is a CBS News correspondent. He brings viewers moving stories from the unique people he meets in his weekly award-winning feature segment “On the Road.”
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CONCORD, North Carolina — Not many children crave connection more than 4-year-old Roman Butzlaff. If you pass by his house in Concord, North Carolina, he will surely greet you with a wave and a “hey.”
“He wakes up every day excited to say ‘hi’ to somebody, like, that’s the first thing he wants to do,” his mother, Anna Butzlaff, told CBS News.
And yet, she said that for the longest time, Roman’s cheeriness belied an inner loneliness. About a year ago, his parents broke up. His father moved to Florida, and his grandparents lived out of state as well.
But fortunately, all those seeds of kindness he had planted began to bloom. It started with Wade Fulgum, who lives across the street from Roman.
Fulgum went over to meet the boy who was always waving. They started doing things together. Eventually, other neighbors followed suit. They would stop and chat or even take part in activities such as drag racing down the street.
Anna Butzlaff said it was initially a bit strange because she barely knew any of these people.
“I didn’t really know how to take it,” she said. “I just saw that my son was happy.”
Which is why she went along with it when Roman then began inviting many different neighbors to his soccer games, basketball games and baseball games. Other neighbors came to his swimming lessons and even his preschool open house.
And when it came time for his birthday party, Anna Butzlaff knew the only people she needed to invite were his senior citizen neighbor friends.
“He loves having us there, and he’ll run up and hug us,” one neighbor said.
“They’ve made such an impact on him,” Anna Butzlaff said. “They are really special people to him.”
Today, the refrigerator is blanketed with pictures of all those people Roman holds so dear. His mother says his inner loneliness is gone.
And his “love thy neighbor” attitude is spreading. Roman has now brought together about a dozen neighbors who say they would have barely known each other if not for that little boy, who lived in a neighborhood but needed a village.
Said one neighbor: “Look at what this little kid has built.”
Added another: “If the world was like this child, what an awesome, awesome place it would be.”
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