Twitter/Drew Carey/Livestrong/$1million Dollars

Apparently, a young man named Drew Olanoff, cancer-fighter and blogger, has been auctioning his very popular Twitter username @drew to raise money for Livestrong, Lance Armstrong's cancer foundation. Orlanoff, who developed Hodgkins disease in May 2009, decided to air his frustrations to the masses by way of Twitter. With a friend he set up BlameDrewsCancer.com so Tweeters could blame his cancer for everything and anything that has gone wrong in their world. The auction was doing well and was to end on November 9th, his 30th birthday. He thought someone would, at the last minute, bid $10,000.00 and that would be it. That's where the other Drew comes in. The popular CBS game show host, Drew Carey, got wind of the auction and decided to get involved. As a newbie on Twitter, he's been trying to gain a following as many celebrities have lately. He initially bid $25,000.00 but soon bumped it up to $100,000.00 knowing the money was being donated to Armstrong's cancer foundation.

Carey, the Cleveland comedian, knowing that many celebrities have millions of followers on twitter (Ashton Kutcher has 3 million) decided to up the ante to $1,000,000.00 if he could amass a million followers on the social media site. As of October 9th, Carey's following was around 65,000 but has been steadily growing after the wacky proposal. It's approaching 100,000 as we speak. He doesn't think at this rate he can get to the million mark, but whatever the number is on December 31st, 2009 is what he will donate (500,000 followers = $500,000.00). Whether you think this a publicity stunt or not, the money will provide much needed funding for cancer research.

No matter if your a Carey or Twitter fan, I urge you to help make this happen. If you already tweet, go to @DrewFromTV (Carey's username) and follow him. Even if your not into Twitter, join (it's free) and become his follower. Livestrong is a fantastic support system for those who have contracted the dreaded disease and raises considerable research money through charitable events it sponsors.

What a fabulous story! Let's race for the yellow jersey!

*Update on 12/18/09: Drew Carey now has 288,000 followers on twitter. If you haven't yet, follow him. He's still committed to $1.00 per follower.

Right before the end of 2009, Drew Carey in conjunction with Livestrong announced that he will donate $1 million dollars when his followers and the followers of Livestrong combined reach 1 million. Presently (January 26th, 2010) the combined total is 454,000 followers strong. I urge you to get involved! If you're a twitterer go to @DrewFromTV and @Livestrong and follow them. If you're not a Twitterer, join (it's simple/ takes maybe 2 minutes) and join the movement. The Lance Armstrong Foundation (cancer research) really could put that $1 million to great use.

Update: March 29, 2010 The total is now 484,000 followers. We need your support. Thanks!