By BURTON SPEAKMAN
GLASGOW — Just a day after the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth students at Red Cross Elementary School were able to look into the past as Lincoln spoke to them.
Classes from kindergarten through sixth grade listed to a presentation Friday from John Mansfield, of Nashville, a Lincoln look-alike and two time winner for the Lincoln Days look-alike contest.
Mansfield blended his hour-long presentation with history about Lincoln and life lessons. Mansfield is a native of Park City.
He told the story of someone when Lincoln was young stated that he looked strange and would not amount to much.
“When somebody says something about you. I want you to remember the lesson of Abraham Lincoln. You can do lots of wonderful things,” Mansfield said.
The lessons from Lincoln’s life such as honesty and being selfless, he said.
A person who borrows something should treat that item better than they would treat their own things, Mansfield said.
Abraham Lincoln was a selfless man who always did what he thought was right, Mansfield said.
“He may have done some things to promote himself, but he always did it because he thought as he got higher he could help make things better for people,” Mansfield said.
Lincoln was always involved in things like water projects and expanding the railroad system that would help people to live better lives, he said.
Mansfield first started to look like Lincoln in 1976 when he grew a beard for the nation’s bicentennial, he said.
There are a lot of good lessons that children can learn from Lincoln’s life, Mansfield said. In 2006 he was approached by a documentary filmmaker who was looking for someone who didn’t professionally appear as Lincoln for a movie and won the look-alike contest in Hodgenville, Lincoln’s birthplace.
A lot of children do not know what work is, Mansfield said.
“We need to teach them about hard work,” he said.
During the presentations to the smaller children, many hugged Mansfield as they left.
“I don’t know what it is but children have a lot of love for Abraham Lincoln,” Mansfield said.
Susan Peters, Mansfield’s cousin and a kindergarten teacher at Red Cross, had taught’her students Lincoln's facts prior to Mansfield’s visit. Peters had invited Mansfield to appear at the campus.
It’s great to see the children’s faces when they see him, she said. They believe he is really Abraham Lincoln. The children have to be taught about time and that it’s not possible for Mansfield to actually be Lincoln.
“It’s like living history for them,” Peters said.
The school was able to pay for Mansfield to visit thanks to a $500 grant from the Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, said Robin Davis, a teacher at the school.
The grant was specifically designed to be used for guest speakers to come into the school, she said.
