Discover Sycamore, 407 W. State St. and area businesses are working on a special video with the goal to bring talk show queen Oprah Winfrey to the area for a visit.

Michelle Schulz, owner of Kar-Fre Flowers, 1126 E. State St. said several people in the area got the idea for the video from Oprah’s show.

“The reason we want to bring Oprah to Sycamore is because we love Sycamore,” Schulz said. “The first week that her show premiered one of the things they wanted to do was have Oprah come to your hometown. We decided what better hometown for her to visit than Sycamore.”

Discover Sycamore Director Megan Yockey said the “Oprah Winfrey Show” is looking for a one-of-a-kind small town and that is Sycamore.

“Sycamore has a lot to offer at any time of year,” Yockey said. “We hope the Oprah show will see that and come visit us.”

Yockey said many area residents and businesses requested that Sycamore get involved in the video project and Discover Sycamore and the Chamber of Commerce were brought in to coordinate efforts and create one video.

“The Chamber sort of undertook that responsibility and made the umbrella that they would take all those people who were passionate about that and say, ‘OK, here’s how we’re going to do it,'” Schulz said. “They’re the driving force behind sending the video and hopefully attracting Oprah to come to Sycamore.”

Schulz said they plan to include various people throughout Sycamore as a way to personalize the video.

“The block party allowed us to do a community wide thing, but perhaps putting faces with the video so that Oprah maybe feels an attachment or a draw to come to Sycamore,” Schulz said.

The ideal plan is to get the video sent out within the week so that Oprah might be able to visit Sycamore during the annual Pumpkin Fest celebrations, Schulz said.

“It’s great for Sycamore,” Schulz said. “The more people who realize what a neat town this is the better it is for Sycamore. It’s a safe, loving community, and it’s neat for people to discover just how great this community is.”

Yockey said she hopes this will encourage many others to send videos telling Oprah that she should come to Sycamore.

“The video will be a great tourism piece for us to use for Oprah, as well as in the future to invite people to Sycamore all year round,” Yockey said. “Sycamore is a quaint town with unique shopping, exquisite dining and fun entertainment for the whole family. We know that Oprah [and her] fans would love to visit Sycamore.”