SYCAMORE – Nearly 350 stuffed animals may soon be on display at the Sycamore Community Center.

Local political and business leaders met Friday at Sophie’s Fargo Hotel in Sycamore to help raise money and discuss possible plans for the 350 animal specimens recently donated to the city of Sycamore.

Russell and Bernie Schelkopf donated a collection that includes elephants, giraffes and bears. Every animal in the collection was hunted by Russell Schelkopf.

Tami Armstrong, interim executive director for the Midwest Museum of Natural History, said there are plans to transform the community center into a museum.

To help with the layout of the museum, Rich Faron, of Museum Explorer Group, was brought in by the city. Faron formerly worked for the Chicago Field Museum for 20 years. In that time, he oversaw some major projects, including the development of Sue, the massive Tyrannosaurus rex unveiled in 2000.

Faron unveiled his plans on Friday after previously seeing the Schelkopf collection. His plans include making the exhibits interactive, with touch-screen information available to museum-goers.

Greg Baum, an architect for Durant Architects, also is helping Faron visualize the end result.

Baum believes the public’s interest will allow them to reach their goal of raising between $1.3 and $1.5 million. They already have raised $550,000.

The current goal is to raise the money necessary by April 1, with the museum opening by 2003.

The collection is huge, said Faron, and with only 6,000 square feet to work with, not everything will be on display at once. This makes every visit to the museum a unique one.

With many of the animals being so large, one might wonder how something like an elephant could be brought into the building. Faron said that will not be a problem because the animals come apart to make transporting easier.

“This is a unique opportunity and it’s a good fit in a historic building downtown,” Armstrong said.

Faron also thinks this will be a great opportunity to teach everyone how important the environment is. He added that people need to forget how or why the animals may have been acquired.