SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – South Bend residents have kicked off a year-long celebration of the northern Indiana community's 150th year as a city.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tah-juhj) issued a birthday proclamation Friday that was followed by a fireworks show and volunteers handing out free slices of birthday cake.

The city is planning a big celebration during the weekend of May 22-May 24 that will be one of the highlights of its sesquicentennial. May 22 is the 150th anniversary of the day South Bend was granted a city charter back in 1865.

Buttigieg tells the South Bend Tribune (http://bit.ly/1wNjUe8 ) the celebration is “about so much more than a date, or a number or an anniversary.'' 

He says instead it's “about the history, the life and, above all, the future of our great city.''