Longtime volunteer reflects

Houston ranks No. 1 in baby love: The country's top March of Dimes eventcelebrates 40 years & two billion raised

This year, the March of Dimes' March for Babies is expected to bring over 30,000participants.
Photo by David Postma
Houston's March of Dimes ambassador family, Loriana Morris, Jake Decker,daughter Jocelyn, and their twin boys Wesley and Gabriel, relied on help fromthe March of Dimes when the twin boys were born premature.
Photo by Jaime Collier
Loriana was diagnosed with Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome at 24 weeks, andWesley and Gabriel were born prematurely at 33 weeks.

We may not have scored ourselves a space shuttle. Nor did we make the (arbitrary) urban cut for caring about the environment. But when our town raised more than three million to help babies born sick or too soon in one event — which ranks it No. 1 in the nation — ahem, it puts it all in perspective.

On Sunday, the March of Dimes will host the annual March for Babies fundraising event for the 40th time in Houston. This five-mile walk will start and end at the University of Houston's Robertson Stadium, and is expected to draw more than 30,000 marchers. Last year's event earned the distinction as the No. 1 March of Dimes event in the nation in terms of participants and money raised — and organizers expect to raise another record $3.2 million this year.

That would push H-Town's March of Babes contribution to more than two billion in the 40 years of the event.

Baby, Houston's come a long way.

March for Babies volunteer logistics coordinator Bobby Holloway, a member of the Centerpoint Energy team, has been a volunteer for the Houston event for the last 25 years. "I remember when we collected dimes and put them in the slots in cardboard boxes," he says.

"The event and number of teams has expanded significantly since I began volunteering," Holloway continues. "Twenty five years ago, there were about 15,000 walkers and it was held at Rice. But we outgrew Rice, and now we're at UH."

This year, the fundraising walk is only the beginning of the party. Other festivities include a rock wall, an inflatable bounce house, and arts, crafts, and refreshments galore.

Maybe we'll never win in an irritability contest. Maybe we're the perpetual runner up to Chicago in areas like corporate expansion.

But where it counts, our city knows how to pack a powerful, life-saving punch.

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SAFE SPACE

2 Houston neighbors ranked among the top 10 safest cities in Texas

Steve Francis home estate Memorial Villages

Photo by Kevin Ward

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Judging by the headlines, locals might think they're going to be accosted every time they leave home, but a new report says the Houston area is home to two of the safest cities in Texas. Home security review site SafeWise has ranked the communities of the Memorial Villages (No. 3) and Fulshear (No. 8) on its recent list of towns unburdened by crime worries.

For its 2026 report, SafeWise factored in FBI-reported property and violent crime data for 343 cities, then adjusted it for population in order to fairly compare metros to rural and suburban towns. Although the rankings do provide a snapshot, the site says “a number of factors, including local agency reporting practices, community resources, prevention efforts, and lived experience all influence how safe a place is (or is perceived to be).”

The rankings were released with SafeWise’s State of Safety survey, which found that perception didn’t always gel with reality. Although the statewide property crime rate of 23.4 incidents per 1,000 people is slightly higher than the national rate, Texas’ violent crime rate of 4.44 incidents per 1,000 people is consistent with the national average.

Still, Texans feel less safe than the average American. Only 49 percent of the survey’s respondents say they feel safe in the state compared to the national norm of 52 percent. 55 percent said they worry about their safety on a daily basis, a year-over-year increase from 52 percent. The data contrasts with first-hand reporting. For the second year in a row, Lone Star State participants said they have had few personal experiences with property crime and package theft.

Elsewhere in Texas, Fair Oaks Ranch was the only San Antonio area city to make it to the list, which favored towns of 30,000 residents or fewer. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan statistical area had the most ranked cities. The full top 10 includes:

No. 1 — Trophy Club (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 2 — Parker (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 3 — Memorial Villages (Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land)
No. 4 — Melissa (Dallas-Fort Worth)
No. 5 — Fair Oaks Ranch (San Antonio-New Braunfels)
No. 6 — Whitehouse (Tyler)
No. 7 — Murphy (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 8 — Fulshear (Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land)
No. 9 — Colleyville (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
No. 10 — Lumberton (Beaumont-Port Arthur)

safety suburbs crime rankings