A sign war has been going on in Portage la Prairie for several days now. It all started at Styled With Meraki when a client shared the idea with owner Adrienne Hofer.

Hofer explains what happened.

"We were just feeling a little bit down because it had been a hard couple years, obviously, for businesses in the community," says Hofer. "And I was trying to come up with a funny idea for our sign outside of our business to cheer people up. Actually, one of my clients, Victoria Espey, who works for the PCRC in town, showed me the sign wars for different provinces. And I was all about the idea and my business is right across from Tornados. And I knew Jan Verwey (owner of Tornados) would be all over it, so I took a dig at her and we started the sign wars."

Hofer says the ball started rolling and soon many more got involved. She says she was hoping it would take off as it has.

"I didn't think right away that it would, and that everyone would join on board like it is, but that was definitely my intentions," adds Hofer. "It's so awesome to see this sense of community and connection and healthy, lively rivalry between businesses. It's really positive and it's good for everyone's morale right now."

Hofer is vice president of the Portage la Prairie & District Chamber of Commerce and shares her perspective from that role.

"Honestly, I think now is the most important time to be working together," adds Hofer. "That's one of my core values. As a business owner and being a part of the Portage Chamber is to make those connections and work together as a community to continue to keep growing our community and growing our relationships with the businesses inside of it. And I think it's really important to support each other. If we can do it while entertaining people, I think that's just awesome."

She explains her sign started it all off last Thursday, noting it didn't take long to see the momentum take off.

"it's really awesome to see something positive come from Portage," adds Hofer. "Sometimes lots of people have some bad things to say about our community, and it's really nice to see so many people saying such good things and having something that is going viral, that's a very good spin for us. For all the attention that the businesses are getting and how everyone is so involved, I think that that's really great."