It’s not quite to the point of standing outside Wal-Mart with a “Will publish content for food” sign, but it might be time to start begging. Maybe we can run a telethon, minus the tote bags.

One of the dirty little secrets of the newspaper business is that we occasionally need submissions from our readers to flesh out our sections. In the case of The Vicksburg Post’s sports section, that especially means two things — event notices and reader photos.

In some bizarre cosmic twist, all of the events that kept our Game Plan section overflowing for two months occurred in a two-week span in October. For the past week or so there has been nothing to post there and so that recurring and useful item has been absent.

If you have an event coming up, drop us a line or send us a flyer. We’ll run it for free and help get the word out.

Another thing that has had a noticeable dropoff lately is submissions for our “Top Team” photo of the day feature. We’ve gotten the occasional softball or soccer team, but they’ve been scarce. I like to think our rec and tournament teams are out there winning something and making our fair city proud. If so, send us a photo.

Hunting season is also getting under way, which means hunters young and old bagging their first deer and plenty of trophy bucks. The Vicksburg Post has a long tradition of recognizing all of them, but we need your help. Since we can’t be there in the woods with you, snap a photo and send it to us. We’d love to publish it.

We aren’t too picky about who or what is in the hunting photos, but we do ask for three things:

• Please provide the names of the people pictured, as well as the date and approximate location of the hunt, and the size of the animal.

• Make sure the picture is in focus and as well lit as possible. Use a flash if it’s at night, and check the photo on your camera’s screen before wrapping things up.

• Keep the blood and gore to a minimum. We’re a newspaper, not Fangoria.

All submissions and photos can be emailed to sports@vicksburgpost.com. We publish Game Plan twice a week (Sunday and Wednesday) and Top Team photos every day.

With your help, and for less than pennies a day, we can stamp out this content shortage one photo and email at a time, and without standing on the side of an off ramp. It gets cold and lonely out there.

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor at The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com