BATON ROUGE- About a dozen people spent their Saturday ridding North Baton Rouge of graffiti. The day of service was put together by councilwoman Tara Wicker and M&M Industrial.

"This was really about the village coming together and making sure that our community is brought back to its beauty that we know that it should be," said Wicker. 

Together, the group cleaned up 50 different buildings around Florida Boulevard and Plank Road. 

Wicker announced the event shortly after the graffiti problem came to a head earlier this month, when police arrested Brandon Hayes for tagging all over the city, including the historic Sweet Olive Cemetery. 

"Just like you see trash on the ground and you recognize that that's something that brings people's mindset down, it lessens property values. Visual litter is the same."

Most of the graffiti was painted over, some was power-washed away. The group also picked up any trash they encountered along the way. 

"It puts people in a mindset that people don't care or there's no hope, so we just wanted to reverse that message and say 'hey, we do care about this community'," Wicker said.