Valley Sentinel Community Calendar Policies

Welcome to the Valley Sentinel community calendar. We are a hybrid, curated calendar designed to provide a comprehensive look at what is happening in the River Valley area.

Our Coverage Area — We prioritize events within the River Valley School District, specifically: Arena, Lone Rock, Plain, Spring Green, and the immediate surrounding areas. We may occasionally include events of significant local value within Sauk, Iowa, and Richland counties at our editorial discretion.

How to Submit

• Use this form (Recommended): This ensures your event is captured accurately and allows you to control exactly how the content appears online.
• Submitting via Email: If you cannot use the form, please email calendar@valleysentinelnews.com with the Event Name, Venue/Address, Date/Time, Cost, Age Range, Brief Description, Organizer/Contact Info and an image.

A Note on Our Calendars — We operate several calendar views. Please select the appropriate category during submission:

• Civics & Services: Use this for governmental board meetings, service organization meetings, blood drives, and support groups. These will be automatically routed to our dedicated Civics & Services calendar.
• What’s Hanging?: Use this for ongoing art exhibitions.
• General Events: Everything else goes here.

You may pick as many categories from our list as match your event.

Editorial Guidelines & Exclusions — Our calendar is curated to provide maximum value to our readers. We reserve the right to decline any submission that falls outside our mission. We do not publish:

• Events outside our coverage area.
• Passive benefits (e.g., “Eat at [X] to benefit [Y]”).
• Events not open to the public.
• Food/drink sales, discounts, or routine business specials.
• Fundraisers: If a function raises money, advertising the event is a normal expense. We encourage you to place an ad or utilize our Featured Events ($25). Exceptions may be made at our editorial discretion for events that include additional programming and benefit the community (e.g., a dance party with a cover that goes towards a community grant nonprofit is an event, a brat stand is not an event).
• Weekly religious services (please submit special/holiday events only).
• Campaign-style promotions for general business services (or promotions within a business’s usual services), although there are some exceptions (e.g., classes, workshops, fitness/yoga classes, and many kids events).
• The calendar cannot accommodate most multi-day classes or workshops, especially if they are held as a regular course of business. Promotion of those are best done by advertising, especially a medium rectangle ad that we can include next to the calendar.
• Events with an expired registration date, subject to editorial discretion.
• Sales, although there are some exceptions (e.g., library book sales, neighborhood garage sales).
• Online events with no specific local connection.

Image Requirements

• No flyers, please. We cannot publish (most of) them. Flyers are often too busy or look too much like advertising to work for the calendar. Exceptions may be made at our editorial discretion, especially for free events and simple flyers.
• Submit horizontal or square photos (JPEG, GIF, or PNG).
• Files should ideally be under 5MB.
• Good photos include: performers, shots from last year’s event, or the event location.

Important Notes

• Verification: Always check our calendar before submitting to see if your event is already listed. If we have curated your event and you would like to take over the submission process, please email us.
• Edits: If you submitted your event without logging in and need to make an update, email calendar@valleysentinelnews.com immediately. Pro tip: Create an account and log in before submitting so you can manage your events directly.
• Featured Events: Want more reach? You can list your event as a “Featured Event” for $25. For broader marketing campaigns, please visit our advertising page.
• Editorial/Press: To pitch an article idea, email calendar@valleysentinelnews.com or call 608-588-6694.