SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - A summer art project for Springfield students aimed at helping beautify the north side of town has been defaced.

Now Sangamon County Crime Stoppers is asking for the public's help with investigating the incident. 

In July of 2020, the Springfield Art Association completed a mural highlighting some historic landmarks on Route 66. Education Director Erin Svendsen said this was an effort to bring some color to the underpass on North Peoria Road.

"We have different things specifically from the north side in the mural," Svendsen said. "We have Shea's Auto Museum that's closed. We were trying to give tribute to that. The state fair with the Lincoln statue, which is another Route 66 landmark."

The mural was completed by ten high school students, such as Olivia Baima, during a summer art camp. 

"I worked on it for three weeks, maybe," Baima said. "It was really labor intensive."

Since its completion, Svendsen said the mural received an overwhelming positive response from the community.

"Online, we had something like 80,000 people had viewed the mural. We had the Route 66 magazine wanting to make it their cover," Svendsen said. "It was really amazing, just being on the street, seeing how many people were honking and driving by, yelling out their windows ... thank you so much! We love this! North side really needed it!"

According to Crime Stoppers, sometime between Jan. 10 and 27, the mural was defaced with graffiti.

"I heard about it through my mom," Baima said. "I still haven't actually seen it, because I can't bring myself to see our work covered up like that."

Svendsen said the spray-paint caused several hundred dollars worth of damage. 

"It's not just small tags. It's large tags that are across detail work," Svendsen said. "There's one [tag] it mostly says 'graper' and it's completely covering the entire truck. On the other side, there's words that say 'drag.'"

Now, Svendsen said the art association will make sure the mural's mark on the community isn't erased.

"It has to be 55 degrees for a period of days for our paint to stick to the wall," Svendsen said. "Sadly, it will have to be up there for a while. We're not just going to leave it. We're going to take care of it."

Anyone who has any information can call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 217-788-8427.