VINCENNES, Ind. (AP) – The city of Vincennes' annual watermelon drop that helps New Year's Eve revelers usher in the new year also will serve as the kickoff event for Indiana's 200th birthday.

Organizing committee member Rick Linenburg tells the Vincennes Sun-Commercial (http://bit.ly/1DWdJJK ) that he received word last week that the committee's application to be the celebration's first official event had been approved.

Traditionally the southwestern Indiana city has welcomed the new year with the spectacle of watermelons dropping about 100 feet from a giant manmade watermelon onto a “splatform'' as fireworks soar skyward.

Linenburg says planning already has begun, but now that the committee has received the approval it plans to try to get more organizations involved. He says the two events will combine to make for one heck of a celebration.