A local crew of volunteers is kindling plans for a multimillion-dollar museum for kids. Their goal is to educate the town's burgeoning youth in science, math and engineering, fields that fueled the region's rise.

With several hundred dollars of seed money and a website in hand, the Cary Children's Museum hopes to raise $4 million to $20 million over the next few years.

The group's ultimate goal is to purchase or build a nonprofit downtown learning center it would stock with interactive exhibits.

Lauren Schafer, treasurer for the young organization, already knows where to find a similar experience for her children.

"We get in the car and then we drive all the way to Marbles" Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh, she said.

Schafer said she hopes Cary's large, tech-savvy population can support a facility of a slightly smaller scale than the Raleigh museum. She envisions a site up of to 17,000 square feet, the size of three large houses.

It will take quite a capital campaign to get there. About 20 people are involved in the project, and the downtown Heart of Cary Association is helping.

The committee wants donations and, for the moment, votes in an online contest.

The proposed museum is competing for $25,000 from Pepsi's combination philanthropic-advertising campaign.

The Cary Children's Museum by last week was ranked 49th of about 220 in its tier of this month's Pepsi Refresh contestants, Schafer said. Broughton High School of Raleigh topped the list last week with a plea to send its marching band to the Rose Bowl.

The Cary Children's Museum wants to use any winnings to fund a traveling exhibit ahead of the museum itself, as well as a black-tie affair to raise more money.

Beyond Pepsi, it's going to be fundraisers and a quest for corporate backing. The group may approach the town about a public-private partnership, but a town spokeswoman said no such talks were under way. The Town Council would have to approve any deal with the museum.

"We think the town will get involved as we go farther down the road," Schafer said.

Funding from all over

Government support is, in many cases, the key to success for kids' museums, according to the Association of Children's Museums.

"Generally, there's some sort of ... 50-50 public-private mix of support, but that varies quite a bit," said Diane Kopasz, spokeswoman for the international group.

Children's museums have popped up worldwide since the mid-1970s, she said. North Carolina already is rich with them: the ACM counts 16 museums on its membership rolls, making the state's total second only to California.

That could be a boon for Cary, Kopasz said.

"I you didn't grow up going to one ... you're not certain what it's all about," she said. "In some cases, having a few helps propagate more."

But good things don't come easily, she said. Planners must create solid business plans, find support from governments, ensure there are enough interested families and find a good location. The process can take from four to 10 years, she said.

The Cary group hopes to open its museum by the end of 2013 and already has asked local kids to compete in a logo designing contest. Upon completion, Schafer said, the museum will serve toddlers to teenagers.

"We want to be able to enhance their early learning - make it interactive, fun," she said; then, "when they get to high school, it's not this huge, daunting thing."