Decades ago, I designed a fun fundraiser for a city department of health to be done at a State Fair. Rather than doing a boring health-related presentation, which would, sadly, raise little money or interest, I decided to put on a "Mitt Camp." I thought I would discuss it here since it seems to be something that is little-known currently. The idea was this: I rounded up 30 volunteers, mostly university faculty and spouses, and "trained" them in about 15 minutes how to do palm readings. Then I set them forth in groups to man the health department booth. For a $3 donation (remember this was in the 1970's) people could have their palms read by highly skilled palm-readers.

How did I do it? With a well-made tick sheet, of course. The training for the volunteers was to tell them that (1) they probably can figure out plenty from the prospective subject just by looking at them, their hairstyle, the way they dress, how they talk, etc. (2) they would ask the subject to place their hand out on the counter while the volunteer "reader" would stare at it (3) then the volunteer would check off anywhere from 5 to 7 items on the tick sheet and send the happy subject on their way in 1-2 minutes.

The volunteers worked in shifts and we had subjects lined up all day for the readings, which many subjects said were remarkably accurate (!) and we raised thousands for the department of health. Not only that, but the volunteers had a lot of fun.

I wonder if anyone is doing something similar today. If not, it's a great and novel way to raise funds for a charity, keep volunteers active. YOU are the star, because you came up with the idea, organized it, and supplied the tick sheets (which you can obtain commercially or design yourself.) I think in today's market, a $5 donation is not unreasonable. People pay more than that at a county or state fair for french fries!

Did you use tic sheets?