Every year at the start of March, The Express runs our Progress sections: four days (now stretching to five!) where we work with a wide range of local advertisers to share their stories with you.

For some businesses, it’s their anniversary. Others are announcing themselves in the section for the first time, and still others are many-year veterans of the section who use the space to explain the changes, growth and new products that their businesses now offer.

It’s a celebration of local business seen on a once-in-a-year scale.

Of course, not every business in the area participates, for a wide variety of reasons. Many are selective in their participation, choosing to only advertise in Progress when they have something special to share.

This means that no two years are the same for you, the reader — and just when you think you’ve seen it all, we will have something new for you to see.

Today marks the halfway point for this year’s Progress, and we sincerely hope you have enjoyed what you have read thusfar. It’s quite a labor for our staff, as it essentially doubles the size of the paper for a week.

Speaking of labor, something we want to specifically highlight for Progress is the number of small, local businesses that have participated this year.

While there are certainly larger companies that are members of chains as well, the majority of Progress participants are, well, just people who had an idea or a dream and went for it.

Did you read the Dear Annie column in yesterday’s paper? The headline was “Dreams don’t have deadlines,” with a published author reflecting on how glad she was that she chased her dream to write books, despite the sacrifices and risks she had to take along the way.

Annie had the following comment, among others:

“To those wondering if they should go for it, the answer is simple: Yes. Life is too short for “what ifs.” Dreams don’t have expiration dates, and passion doesn’t fade just because the world tells you to be “realistic.”

Progress is full of the success stories of people who had dreams, and went for it. Some of them have failed. Some of them have failed multiple times.

But they’re still there, chasing that dream.

We find that inspiring, and we hope you do, too.

Progress continues today and tomorrow with our biggest sections, and this year we have added a small extra section in Saturday’s edition as well. You’ve got lots more to read on the way.

And maybe, one day, your business will join them.

Chase the dream, if it calls to you. We’re rooting for you.