Drew Carey may have left his hometown of Cleveland for fame and fortune in Hollywood, but he hasn't forgotten the little people. When a man by the name of Drew Olanoff, a cancer-fighting blogger, decided to auction off his enviable Twitter.com username - @drew - and donate the proceeds to LiveStrong, he anticipated he could raise $10,000. He never expected that his auction would capture the attention of Price Is Right host Drew Carey, and he especially did not anticipate the hefty $1 million offer that Carey would eventually make. And while some may think that Carey is simply trying to get publicity, he insists that that's not the case and that he didn't even think about his bids when he made them.

An active Twitter user ( @DrewFromTV), Carey surpassed Olanoff's $10,000 expectation by tweeting an initial bid of $25,000. He then decided to quadruple his offer, moving it up to $100,000 if he could get 100,000 Twitter followers. This generous offer was topped when Carey - without really thinking - decided to increase it even more: he would donate $1 million if he can get one million followers by midnight on December 31, and if he doesn't reach a million followers he will give a prorated donation of $1 for every follower.

In an email exchange with The Cleveland Leader, Drew Carey says:

"I don't think I gave any of these offers more than a few seconds thought. Weird, right? Because it's so much money. Didn't consult any of my "people" or my accountant... I just went for it. Although, the million I thought of Saturday night or Sunday morning.. wasn't sure how to announce it. Thought about that part. Did it during my cbs.com interview. CBS and The Price Is Right, after all, make it possible for me to donate this kind of money. But THEN, I thought no, it'll be too big of a thing and people will think I'm just trying to be a big shot. It's bad enough as it is. Then... during the interview I just blurted it out. No thought. I wonder if my accountant is disgusted by me like a person is when they see a friend who's a bad-behaving drunk."

Drew says that now he has people coming at him left and right through @ replies on Twitter with all kinds of requests. Not knowing what to do about, Carey talked with an "important Buddhist monk" and "got to ask him about all the people that come to with his problems." So what kind of wisdom did the Buddhist monk have to share with Carey? "He said he just tries his best," said Carey, "So on my MUCH smaller scale of people coming to me hoping for a solution, I'll do the same thing too. My goal is to act out of love in every instance, even if the answer is no."

Carey also noted that the monk brought up an interesting thought of just how many people had to work to make it possible for him to have the cup of green tea he had ordered at dinner and how that relates to his quest to donate a million dollars to LiveStrong:

"Amazing with you think of it," said Carey, "The farmers, the trade agreements and discussions, the management meetings, the workers in the field, the designers of the cup and saucer and the factory workers that made those, the people who shipped everything with care enough not to break any, the design and manufacture of every piece of the metal and glass tea pot he was using at the restaurant.... And all for a cup of tea. It was a powerful, yet simple lesson. He was teaching me how involved we all are with everyone in the world and how our work and actions affect so many people. Well, this is the same thing. We can all "hive up" click on a follow button, RT our followers to do the same until they all do, and pretty soon will have ALL worked together to raise a million dollars for cancer research. Easy, huh? It's as if to raise money for the Jerry Lewis Telethon all you had to do is tune in and watch. It's pretty much that easy.

When it all comes down to it, Drew Carey is doing a really awesome thing. Sure, he could go quietly donate a million dollars to LiveStrong. The foundation would be just as pleased with his donation, but doing it this way Drew is also lending some of his star power to the organization and may even inspire others to donate. If you want to make a difference and help fight cancer (who wouldn't?!), go to Twitter.com and follow @DrewFromTV.

"If you're not a huge fan of mine and wouldn't follow me on twitter under normal circumstances don't worry about it. Just hold your nose and hit the follow key. I don't tweet that much anyway, and they're not awful, even though you might not think they're great. And remember, you can also just un-follow me on January 1, 2010. No hard feelings. I'll understand," Drew says.

If you want to go above and beyond and donate some money yourself to LiveStrong, visit www.livestrong.com.