Rolling into Fatherhood with the Raleigh Stroller Society

At a monthly meetup arranged by founder William Folston, this group of men is redefining what it means to be a dad, one step at a time
by Susanna Klingenberg | photography by Bryan Regan

On a crisp Saturday morning at the North Carolina Museum of Art, an eclectic group of dads gathers in the amphitheater, strollers and diaper bags in tow. They are fathers through different means: biological, adoptive and step-parents. They are tattooed and buttoned-up, quiet and outgoing, gay and straight, pushing high-tech strollers and battered hand-me-downs, some in the first months of parenthood and some seasoned veterans.

So what’s the common denominator? William Folston, founder of Raleigh Stroller Society, says it’s simple: “We’re all just looking for community.”

The group, which has been meeting since May of 2025, invites dads and their kids to meet once a month at a local park to take a stroller walk together. It’s a simple premise with an outsized impact. Historically, there have been plenty of ways for new moms in Raleigh to gather and share the parenting experience, ranging from paid membership groups to abundant casual meetups. HER Health Collective, Mom League, Dear Brown Mama and The Bunny Hive are just a few of the many ways moms can form community around motherhood in Raleigh.

But for fathers, the local options have been far fewer. “If you didn’t know another dad, like in the neighborhood or something, who was going through the same phase of parenthood as you, you were kind of on your own,” says Folston. “I wanted to change that.”

“I’m a work-from-home dad, so I’m at the house a lot, and I feel like I can lose myself in raising my son, you know?” says Trevant Mann, a regular. “Being able to get out, chat, network and just be with other dads — it keeps me grounded.”

Folston says at each meetup, talk quickly turns from music and sports to the nitty-gritty of early parenting: sleep deprivation, feeding challenges, milestones and marital tiffs. “As a first-time parent, I’d read things about what parenthood was like. I’d heard things, seen things on TikTok. But it’s very different in reality,” says Folston. “When I meet up with other dads, it’s comforting to hear, Oh yeah, we went through that too, this is what we did, this is how we conquered it. I come away feeling like, Ok, so this is normal.”

The group’s motto, “Raising kids, raising standards,” reflects Folston’s ambition. “I want our group to be part of the transition to something new, a new kind of father,” he says. Their meetups, though, feel less like a movement and more like a friendly hang, with gales of laughter, plenty of snacks and a chorus of sweet baby noises.

Sarah Szymanowski, certified perinatal mental health counselor and owner of Fermata Counseling, suggests there’s more happening below the surface as dads stroll, munch donuts and change diapers in each other’s company. “They’re being real with each other about the huge identity shift that just happened to them,” she says. “These dads are embodying the change we as parents envision for the next generation of boys. They’re allowing themselves to be vulnerable with each other.”

Folston started the group when he was on paternity leave. His wife had gone back to work, and he wasn’t sure what to do all day with his daughter, Marley. So he did something he and his wife have always enjoyed doing together: he went for walks. “One day I said to my wife, I’m just gonna ask some guys in the neighborhood if they want to come walk with me,” says Folston. “I joked I was starting a stroller club.” Folston’s wife told him about a dad’s stroller club in Brooklyn and encouraged him to lean into the idea. “So what started as a joke turned into me saying, You know what? Let me just give this thing a try,” Folston says.

He posted the idea on Instagram, and nine dads and their babies came to the first meetup in May. That small group met other dads at the park that day, who joined the next month. That larger group brought friends and neighbors and dads from their children’s daycare. In the background, the Raleigh Stroller Society Instagram account was being shared far and wide — mostly by moms, who shared with other moms, who shared with their partners. The group has taken off from there, with the September meeting welcoming over 70 dads and their kids.

Seventy dads, just as many strollers, a crew of chatty toddlers and a mountain of Tepuy donuts: it’s pretty hard to miss, even in a big park on a busy Saturday morning. But visibility is part of the point. The emergence of Raleigh Stroller Society reflects not just on Folston and its participants, but also on our city. “It speaks volumes about the family-friendly community here,” says Brian Lauscher, who attended the September meet-up on his first day in Raleigh, after moving here with his husband and daughter. “I’ve chatted with some of my dad friends in other cities and they’d love to have a dad meetup group like the one in Raleigh.”

Folston takes the long view of community building through the Raleigh Stroller Society: “Hopefully, when our kids are all teenagers, we’ll still know each other, and we’ll have this group as our genesis story.”