Frost it Forward

Surprises flow when CultureMap shows up to delight Dallas yoga class

Weekend wellness buffs who got up early for a Saturday morning class at CorePower Yoga went home with more than a sweaty brow and peace of mind. They also left with swag bags full of goodies and the chance to pay the sweet rewards forward, courtesy of CultureMap and Frost Bank.

After instructor Jamie Ruffino's intense CorePower Sculpt class at the Uptown Dallas studio on August 25, a street team from CultureMap showed up to surprise and delight participants. Each was handed a reusable bag, courtesy of High Brew Coffee, filled with fun treats like Power Crunch protein bars; Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides; and Frost water bottles, hats, and stickers. The fun continued in the studio lobby, where High Brew Coffee provided cold, refreshing, post-workout sips.

Each participant personally was handed a $10 Frost cash card that came with a special request: spend the money on someone else. The pop-up event is part of Frost's new campaign, Opt for Optimism, which inspires others to pay it forward.

Following the yoga class, the surprised recipients took to social media, using the hashtag #frostitforward to document their good deeds. CorePower is getting in on the fun, too, giving away a one-month pass to three people who show how they #frostitforward on social media.

Because we also want to #frostitforward, CultureMap has created our Dallas Charity Guide as a one-stop destination for area nonprofits and charities. Search for an organization by name or category to learn about the mission and how to give back. As a CultureMap reader, you will uncover inspiring and heartfelt stories about these organizations all year long as part of our Charity Guide special editorial series.

Know of an organization that deserves the spotlight? Tell us here.

The CorePower pop-up was the first of several surprise events in Dallas-Fort Worth over the course of 2018. Each month, the CultureMap street team will head to a secret location to surprise and delight folks. Follow along on Instagram and Twitter for hints about our next stop.

Jackie Hurst, Sam Butz

Photo by Ashley Gongora

Jackie Hurst, Sam Butz

charity-guide

children don't come cheap

This is how much the cost to raise a child in Dallas climbed in a year

Photo by Jimmy Dean on Unsplash

It costs nearly $22,000 to raise a child in the Houston area in 2025.

A new national study has revealed it now costs $411 more to raise a child in the Dallas area than it did last year.

SmartAsset's report "Cost of Raising a Child in Major U.S. Metros – 2025 Study" compared data from MIT's Living Wage Calculator to determine the annual costs for raising a child in 2024 and 2025 across the 48 biggest metropolitan areas in the U.S. Factors that contributed to each metro's total included the cost for childcare, additional housing costs, food, transportation, medical costs, and "other necessities."

In 2025, it will cost $22,337 annually to raise a child in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlingtonregion, the report found. That amount has risen 1.87 percent since 2024, when childrearing in the Dallas area cost $21,926 a year.

Dallas has the second-highest costs for raising a child out of the four biggest Texas metros, right behind Austin.

"The cost of raising a child can change quickly, making it important for budding families to keep an eye on trends in their locale," the report said. "Between 2024 and 2025 alone, the average projected annual cost of raising a small child changed by a range of -15 percent to +22 percent, depending on the metro area."

Even though the cost of raising a child in Dallas has increased slightly in the last year, it's still on the low end nationally. The Dallas metro only ranked 38th (out of 48) in SmartAsset's ranking of metros where the cost of raising a child is the highest.

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts led the nation with the highest annual cost for raising a child, totaling more than $39,000, up from $37,758 in 2024.

Costs for raising a child in other Texas metros
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is – unsurprisingly – the most expensive Texas metro for raising a child, with costs surging nearly eight percent from 2024. It now costs $24,188 to raise a child in the Austin area, compared to $22,406 the year before.

There's better news for families in San Antonio. The San Antonio-New Braunfels area clocks in as the fifth most affordable U.S. metro in the study. In 2024, it cost $21,014 to raise a child in the Alamo City, but in 2025, it costs 0.33 percent less, at $20,945.

This is how much it costs to raise a child in San Antonio, according to SmartAsset:

Cost of childcare: $9,123
Housing costs: $3,232
Food costs: $1,644
Medical costs: $2,590
Transportation costs: $3,090
Civic costs: $474
Other costs: $791

Raising a child in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands now costs $21,868 per year, which is only $472 more than it did in 2024.

childcare costs reports smartasset families dallas fort worth arlington

Frost it Forward

Surprises flow when CultureMap shows up to delight Dallas yoga class

Jackie Hurst, Sam Butz

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children don't come cheap

This is how much the cost to raise a child in Dallas climbed in a year