Sept. 9, 2009 School class schedule not what you’d hoped? Coach call you out in front of your teammates? BF ran off with your BFF? Or just need a dose of perspective? Whatcha waitin’ for? “Blame Drew’s Cancer!” Right now!
Today’s the big Blame-A-Thon 9-09-09, where Drew Olanoff and his pals are livestreaming in a social media blitz with raffle prizes, rock and roll, blipTV and the works to fight cancer with every tweet matched with a dollar for LiveStrong! Oh, that’s right, youth don’t ‘Twitter?’ (agree with @Ypulse, “it’s developmental”)
No worries. This is a good excuse to open a free account for the day and see what all the fuss is about! As I wrote about Drew’s amazing effort before, you can just zing one of your troubles his way into the Twitter stream with the hashtag #BlameDrewsCancer and it will show up on his website earning a dollar for LiveStrong, to help kick cancer’s tail! Here’s the Blame-A-Thon Q&A if you want to get the ‘at a glance’ version…
Blame Drew’s Cancer also has a group rallying on Facebook, and on the new “AllRise” which is an online community (in beta) that presides over ‘cases’ you open yourself. (kind of a JudgeJudy meets the People’s Court mashup media moment) What’s the AllRise ‘court’ case? Well, of course, The People vs. Drew’s Cancer!
Drew himself is finishing chemo round 8 of 12, and I’m thrilled to SEE him on the air, and on his livestream today whooping it up with his countless media fans and followers.
Blame Drew’s Cancer isn’t on Twitter as a ‘trending topic’ yet (why I have no idea; they lose points for that one) And I don’t get why I don’t see more support from @LanceArmstrong today with his close to 2 million followers who could clearly lend a Tweet or two, ya know? (esp. considering HIS ORG is getting the bucks, and Drew is working his tail off to earn $$ for cancer research as a LiveStrong envoy)
C’mon folks, where’s the spirit?
Are we all ’caused’ out? How hard is it to play a ‘blame game’ and send one FREE sentence into the mix to benefit a cause?
Instead? On Twitter, I see not one, but TWO variations of trending topics for the magician dude ‘Derren Brown’ in the U.K. who predicted winning lotto numbers… Idea: Mr. Brown, since you’ve got some global eyeballs right now, perhaps you could help make CANCER DISAPPEAR?!
Someone tweet him, quick!
Since I last wrote about Drew Olanoff, he’s also teamed with 23andme.com (genetic testing for health, disease and ancestry) as a sponsor…So evidently their ‘at home DNA testing’ and site are the ones matching $1 each for 500 unique blamers to LiveStrong and helping with costs for the Blame-a-Thon too…And other local folks in Philly like the TacoBell truck and such are lending a hand.
Role model wise, Drew has succeeded in turning a negative into a positive waaaaaaay beyond awareness-raising for cancer to hopscotch right into the fight for funding and battling the big C itself. He’s so inspiring to me!
Want to know more about this gent?
TwitTip has a great summary of his full media effort here in their case study for why Twitter matters and how it can impact the media universe in ‘real time’ as a model for change.
Youth groups, this one’s for you!! (btw, you can see one of my ‘blames’ below in the lefthand corner!)
“What is #BlameDrewsCancer and What am I Blaming it for?
#BlameDrewsCancer is rare for a charitable organization because it’s also a meme.
As a charitable organization, BlameDrewsCancer was founded by Drew Olanoff (@drew), who was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma. Blame Drew’s Cancer’s mission is to support and raise the hopes of people battling and surviving cancer through the use of humor to erase the stigma behind cancer and by inspiring frank discussions of the impact it can have on the lives of those fighting it, as well as those who love and support them. The #BlameDrewsCancer meme was born when, as a coping mechanism, Drew thought it would be funny to blame his cancer on, well, anything he could. He blamed his cancer for lost keys, the Phillies losing, Twitter going down, and whatever else he could think of.”
For More Information
Shaping Youth: Blame Drew’s Cancer for my Attitude of Gratitude
As I said last time:
- LiveStrong, Drew—And all of my dearest ones battling same…You know who you are out there! Hugs to all, keep kickin’ it in the keister…(and back again!) ly.
- And once AGAIN: Blame Drew’s Cancer that I can’t keep my articles to under 1000 words!
Blame Drew’s Cancer Web Site: http://blamedrewscancer.com
Drew’s Blog: http://www.drewolanoff.com
Blame-a-Thon: http://www.blame-a-thon.com
Follow Drew on Twitter: http://twitter.com/drew
LiveStrong Foundation http://www.livestrong.org
American Cancer Society http://www.cancer.org
Make a Wish Foundation http://www.wish.org
Tweetup scene in Philadelphia http://www.phillytweetup.com
Mike Demers http://mikedemers.net
LiveStrong bands http://www.livestrongaction.org/avatar
Blame Drew’s Cancer Twibbon Logos http://twibbon.com
Thanks again for the support, this is an awesome writeup, just like the other one!
Lance has actually tweeted about BDC a few times…first being the time he blamed his broken collarbone on my cancer.
We didn’t trend, but I’ll tell you what…we’ve been consistent since we launched on June 3rd 🙂
Thanks, Drew, yah, I know Lance A. chimed in, & saw his photo on the site w/the collarbone quote & the whole bit, but I couldn’t help but think that he could’ve added a tweet or two the ‘day of event’ since his org was getting the most umpf from it, and those millions of peeps could’ve given it a ‘trending topic’ to at least bump the visibility…
But then, I understand the whole branding/celeb/backer bit too…sigh. I guess it’s all relative…As long as you’re pleased and keepin up the good vibes w/that trademark ‘tude of “whip it, whip it good…’ 😉
You rock, Drew, and are indeed an inspiration for all of us in this fight. Hugs, Amy
.-= Amy Jussel´s last blog ..Using Digital Hide & Seek To Get Kids Outside: A Treasure Trove of Ideas =-.