We attended an annual event a couple of Saturdays ago just as we have nearly every year at this time since 1982.

This Saturday-before-Mother’s-Day tradition has become something we look forward to and will do our best not to miss it even if it means jumping hoops around other things in our schedules to get there.

Nearly every community, it seems, now has its own annual arts and crafts festival of some sort, and my little home town of Kingston, located in rural Madison County, is no exception.

Most of the time, this one-horse-town is quiet and sparingly inhabited. So much so that the oneway arrow directing trafficaround the small grass covered square in the middle of town might be regarded by some as an unnecessary suggestion.

But once each year all that changes. A nearby hay field is turned into a parking lot, traffic is rerouted and my sleepy little town wakes up. The place comes alive with food and vendor booths, kid’s games, a country music band, a parade and lots of other activity, as hundreds of people, including county government officials and other politicians gather from far and wide for the Fair on the Square.

Even with all that going on, I would venture to say that most people come simply to visit. That’s what I do.

On any ordinary day in Kingston it might take three minutes to circle the entire town passing the vintage storefronts, the old-style bank with the barrel vault in the lobby, the feed store and the Waldron Valley Café. But at the Fair on the Square, the same walk has taken me as long as three hours. This is due to the fact that I always see lots of people I recognize - some I haven’t seen in years - and, of course, I have to stop and talk to as many as possible.

This year I had another mission in mind as I made my way around the town square. Ahead of time, I printed flyers announcing the summer Kingston alumni dinner and dispersed them to anyone I could find that had attended Kingston High School in the past. That is how I came to have an interesting conversation with a lady I did not know but whose husband was a high school student back in the 1950s.

She told me that he had been called to military duty during his senior year of high school. That prevented him from graduating and he had always regretted the fact he never obtained a high school diploma. I asked if she was aware that diplomas are sometimes granted in cases like her husband’s. She had not heard anything about this, so I took her address and offered to gather whatever information I could find about it and send it her way.

A few years ago I heard about this service and read up on the matter to see if it might apply in my father’s case and I was sure I could find the information again.

During the process of researching the topic, I began to wonder how many other veterans out there might be eligible yet unaware of this benefit. With that in mind, I decided to pass along some of what I found in case it might beprove helpful to someone else.

Acts 215 and 453 were passed in 2003, authorizing Arkansas school districts to grant diplomas to veterans who served in World War II, the Korean War or the Vietnam War if they left high school before graduation to serve.

Veterans who qualify can be granted a diploma from any school district in Arkansas as long as they meet certain criteria. That criteria includes having been honorably discharged, having served a minimum of 18 consecutive months of active duty or having been discharged with a servicerelated disability, being a resident of the state of Arkansas, and having metspecific dates of service.

Exact dates of service for World War II are between September 16, 1940 and December 31, 1946. If a veteran of the Korean War, service dates between the dates of June 1, 1950 and January 1, 1954 count foreligibility. For those serving in the Vietnam War, dates for eligibility range from July 3, 1965 to May 15, 1975.

Some years ago I was present when one Kingston resident was awarded his diploma nearly sixty years after he left high school to serve in World War II. It was a touching moment and the least that could be done to recognize his contribution made so long ago.

Remembering this made me glad to provide the information to the lady I met at the Fair on the Square

Additional information may be obtained at www.veterans .arkansas .gov/ benefits .html or by contacting Arkansas Department of Education or school district offices.

Annette Rowe is a freelance writer and a speech language pathologist at Siloam Springs High School. She may be reached by email at awalkinthepark50 @ yahoo.com.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 05/19/2010