Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue merchants honour veterans with poppy wreaths [Video]

At a time when many businesses are gearing up for Christmas, Jennifer Buttars, an interior decorator and owner of JennBCreatiV, has been going non-stop creating storefront poppy decorations to show support for the legion and help them raise funds.

“It’s a very short campaign,” she said. “I’m a business, so I want business at Christmas time, but I also think it’s a time when we need to stop and reflect and be grateful.”

Buttars said the village merchants’ association applied for a grant from the city of Montreal to cover the costs of the decorations. They then went to work recruiting volunteers for a series of wreath making workshops at the local legion.

Their materials needed to be inexpensive and weatherproof, so Buttars used her creative skills and came up with a wreath using plastic plates, Styrofoam, tulle, pool noodles, and burlap.

“We felt that we could add a little …