Those with the weekend issue of the Washington Daily News in hand might have noticed a different sort of insert tucked in between the sections. The cover is stacked with portraits, and these photos, and others found inside, reflect community.

What makes a community? Beaufort County is a larger community, with quite a few smaller communities within its boundaries, from Aurora, Edward, Blounts Creek and Chocowinity on the south side of the Pamlico River to Washington, Old Ford, Pinetown, Bath, Pantego and Belhaven on the north side, and even a few smaller ones scattered throughout.

While a community might physically be defined by location, it’s the people of each that truly define it: the people that wake up each day to go to the office, to the fields, to the kitchen and the classrooms. Perhaps they sit down to an easel, lace up their tap shoes, pick up a guitar or answer the call of duty. They are providers of food and entertainment, education, health, safety and security — the very things that keep a community functioning. They are pieces of a whole.

Past issues of Profile magazine have featured things that are actually made here that many people didn’t know about; or 24 hours in Beaufort County, featuring who’s working at all hours of the day and what they’re doing and why it’s important — those are just a sample. The portraits included people in action, on the job or in an environment that visually portrays their roles in the community.

This year, we invited our Profiles to the Washington Daily News studio. We took them out of their environments and focused instead on the person — who they are, what inspires them and why they are passionate about what they do. There are words of wisdom shared, as well as hopes and dreams for the future.

You might not think you know some of the people featured in this year’s Profile magazine, but, in fact, you do. They are the community at large, broken down to the individual. Take a moment to get to know your community a bit better in Profile.