Outreach Resources

This page contains resources to help with Friends Group outreach efforts and event promotion. 

Dane County Parks is happy to help you promote your park events once you have an approved Special Event Permit. In order for us to do this, please help us by doing the following for each of your events:

• Submit the event to our website calendar: use this easy form to submit your event. Once you do, we can approve it and it will show up on our Land & Water and Dane County Parks website event calendars.
• Add us as a co-host on Facebook events: when creating your event, you have the option to add co-hosts. Adding us will display your event to our 6,000+ Facebook followers. Use this PDF guide if you are not sure how to add co-hosts.

We refer to both our website and Facebook event lists when we send out biweekly parks newsletter so please make sure you are taking the steps above so we can help promote your events.

Resources to help your group excel at social media. Resources include a video of some social media tips and tricks as well as a social media guidelines document your organization can download and edit.

The Dane County Land & Water Resources Department has a Flickr account with high quality photos of parks and recreation. Friends groups are welcome to use these images to help promote our parks and natural spaces. Some images include a photographer credit in the photo description. Please include the photo credit when you use the photo.

Introducing our new StoryWalk® Checkout System for Friends Groups!

A StoryWalk® engages park visitors and youth in both outdoor exploration and literacy; laminated pages from a children's book are attached to plastic corrugated yard signs and installed along a trail or walkway. As you stroll down the trail, you're directed to the next page in the story. By adding a StoryWalk® to our parks, we hope that visitors will connect with nature in a new way, bringing together the wonders of reading, the health benefits of nature, and the exploration of the natural world.

There are 20+ stories we have available for checkout at the Lussier Family Heritage Center. Please note that Friends Groups must assemble and provide their own StoryWalk® supports (plastic corrugated yard signs or posts). While this is a free amenity, please be aware that damaged or unreturned StoryWalk® books will result in a $25 replacement fee. To reserve a book, simply fill out the StoryWalk® Checkout Form and email it to HeritageCenter@danecounty.gov. You will receive an email when your book is ready for pick up.