By Elmer Ploetz
Editor-in-Chief

If you’ve been following The Buffalo Hive – and we hope you have! – you know what we do: We cover arts and culture like nobody else in Western New York, putting together a combination of news, criticism and calendar events. It’s a service that we’re providing in a way nobody else is doing it.

But you should also know we need your help to continue doing it. The Buffalo Hive is a nonprofit journalism organization, which means that we have to count on you, our readers and viewers, to pay our writers and to pay our other bills.

Right now is the perfect time to show you believe in what we’re doing. There are two ways you can do that:

1. Get a ticket for The Buffalo Hive Comedy Showcase. This is a major fundraiser and we need your help to make it a success. Tickets are just $25 and are available HERE.
   
   It’s worth noting how we came to the do the Comedy Showcase. While the National Comedy Center does some great events and lots of venues host comedy shows, to the best of our knowledge there really isn’t a Buffalo-centric comedy festival. So we decided to create one. It’s a chance to help fill a gap in the community and also to put on a great show featuring many of the best of our local standup comics and two of our top improv groups.
   
   If you like comedy, The Buffalo Hive, or both … be there!
   
   
2. You may have noticed that we have created a Buffalo Hive membership program. As a nonprofit, our budget is built around a combination of memberships, events, sponsorships and grants – with memberships potentially being the biggest element.
   
   Our membership program gives you some great benefits at local businesses and also – talk about perfect timing! – gives you half off entry to our events – like next Sunday’s Comedy Showcase. So get a membership for you, your family or your organization/business.

So there you have it: a request, a challenge, an opportunity. If you believe in what we’re doing, pitch in!