A public art project by a group of teens in Surrey, B.C., who were inspired to beautify their city has disappeared.

The teens worked for months to get approval for a beautification grant from the city to build a chalkboard at Surrey Central Station where passersby were encouraged to share their aspirations for 2013.

Grade 12 student Stephanie Song says they wanted to make a difference in an area struggling with crime.

"We look around and it's not very vibrant,” she said. “There is not much art. And that’s one of the reasons we wanted to put it there."

But John Lee says the chalkboard was stolen that less than a week after it was installed.

"It was really shocking. I was holding a bucket of chalk and going to refill it. It was really devastating to see it gone,” he said.

“We really spent a lot of time and hard work into organizing and putting this all together so it was kind of devastating for us to see what happened to the board afterwards.”

The City of Surrey is working with the teens to recover the missing chalkboard.