<p>Walt Trumbull, also known as Abe Lincoln, will give a presentation at the Liberty Theater at 7 p.m. July 10. The event is a fundraiser for the Astoria Rescue Mission.</p>

When you think about Abe Lincoln and the theater, one can not help but to think of Lincolns death.

But this week, Walter Trumbull hopes to bring a different memory to your mind that of Lincolns life.

Trumbull, of Seaside, is an Abe Lincoln impersonator. He will deliver the message of the 16th president to the Liberty Theater Thursday as a fundraiser for the Astoria Rescue Mission and its efforts to complete a facility for family housing.

Lincolns message today is, in my opinion, more important than even it was in the 1860s. And I am not diminishing the cause that he put it forth in, which is freeing human beings from bondage, which theres no greater thing that one can do, Trumbull said. But I see great similarities for what we see in our world today with human trafficking of slaves, human trafficking of children, all of these things that are going on in our world that are becoming almost acceptable in the eyes of the public who think theres nothing we can do about this.

Lincoln would have us all believe that it is not necessarily a great movement that can bring about change, it is great people that can bring about change. Lincoln was one of those people.

A theater and opera major in college, Trumbull pursued performance after college, but he eventually moved on to other things. Although he has worked with the Astoria Music Festival and the River Theater, he mostly works as a contractor and, for the last decade, he has cared for his elderly parents. His father died more than a year ago; his mother is now in a care facility in Wheeler. Trumbull visits her multiple times a week.

Shes always been supportive of my acting interests, Trumbull said.

But his Lincoln dreams werent realized until just a few years ago. Now he says he hopes he can take his message and the message of Lincoln on the road, possibly touring and earning a modest living.

It all started when President Barack Obama was elected in 2008. Thats when Trumbull said he grew a beard.

I was walking downtown and I ran into a friend from the theater, and he said, Boy, you look a lot like Lincoln, Trumbull explained. So I thought to myself after that, Now theres an idea, and I decided to do a video as a tribute to Obamas election, particularly in the context to the references that were being made at the time to Lincoln and to Obama.

He uploaded the video of the Gettysburg Address (http://bit.ly/1lJnReT) and Lincolns second inaugural address online (http://bit.ly/1m4Tvbo), considered the greatest presidential speech in American history and received a lot of feedback.

Trumbull hoped to create more videos and advance them as an educational series, but was instead asked by his church to do a performance there. Hes since been asked by other churches and schools. Hes performed in Portland and at the Seaside Convention Center, and recently at the Episcopal Church in Seaside where Dan Strite, a board member for the Mission, saw it and asked Trumbull to help with the fundraising event.

Dans very involved in everything to do with helping those in need and certainly that was one of the great messages of Lincolns person, not just his political career, but his personhood was one dedicated to improving the plight of those who are oppressed, obviously, Trumbull said. He asked if I would be interested, and I was thrilled by the idea!

The event is at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Liberty Theater. The cost is $10. Trumbull will deliver a speech, For the People, which he wrote. Music will be played by Rory Holbrook.

It started out at about 17,000 words after I spent about five days writing it, Trumbull said, who added that he was inspired by his father who was a Civil War historian. Trumbull himself knows a lot about Lincoln and Lincolns life, including that of a dream Lincoln is said to have had, predicting his death the night before he died. The premise of my performance is Lincoln arrives to give an address to the public at a location, nondescript, but the setting is in Washington, D.C., and it is April 14, 1865. He has planned to make this address on the ungodliness of slavery and his support of liberty.

But hes changed his mind as hes arrived at the theater, with this text he has stayed up for a good part of the dawn writing all the things he could remember about this dream. And in my writing, I have recounted every day of his life. Its not so much a political journey as it is a personal journey and a spiritual journey.