Emily Kessler, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor from Ukraine, plays music for herself. From inside her apartment on the Upper West Side, she practices her mandolin and sings folk songs as a means to bring herself joy and remember a time before the war, when she was with her family. 
 
 “We were singing,” she says of her childhood. “My mother, my father. My mother had a voice that when someone heard [it], they thought the radio was playing.” 
 
 Kessler is her own humble talent, a soulful voice packed in her petite frame. When she plays for audiences, they’ve typically been adult groups at community centers. But on Monday night, Kessler is slated to make her debut at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, giving a solo performance to coincide with a fund-raising dinner held by the Blue Card, a nonprofit that offers aid to Holocaust survivors. The performance is part of her incredible odyssey that started when she was a widowed teenager, running and hiding from the Nazis with a baby son and adopted daughter. Masha Pearl, executive director of Blue Card, says the group chose Kessler because her display of personal strength and commitment to music has been an inspiration for the group. "She's able to channel something very painful and deep," Pearl said. 
 
 When the Nazis invaded Ukraine in the summer of 1941, Kessler’s husband, a journalist, went to fight them and never came home. Before her family was rounded up and taken to concentration camps, Kessler says she watched the Nazis shoot her brother and later watched S.S. soldiers kill her mother and father. Widowed with a young child, Kessler survived the war through a combination of extraordinary grit, the kindness of strangers, fake documentation papers, and several years roaming between homes and sleeping in attics and parks to avoid the police or S.S. officers. Back then, she had blonde hair, the bluest eyes, a Ukrainian surname, and lied about her Jewish roots to survive. 
 
 “They ask me, ‘Are you Jewish? Are you Juden?’ I say I am not,” Kessler recalls of one of many encounters with Nazi soldiers. Many memories are so disturbing, she prefers to keep them to herself. 
 
 “I lost my mind,” she says. “I didn’t understand [anything]. My fear took away my mind. I wanted to go only home. Until now, I don’t how I survived with children, without food.” 
 
 Through fake papers, Kessler was able to avoid the camps. Eventually, she made her way with scores of other refugees to New York, where she has rediscovered the mandolin. She sings in Yiddish and Russian and plays scores of ballads and folk songs. Her typical audiences are small groups of seniors. Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic, has nearly 3,000 seats. 
 
 Photo: Abraham Riesman 
 
 Kessler is not nervous. She has her outfit, a black blouse and skirt, prepared. She’s also packed wooden blocks she uses as foot rests and to support her mandolin on her lap. She has six songs prepared, and she’s been practicing, but she’s also brought lyrics to a few more of her favorites, just in case the crowd at Lincoln Center asks to hear more of her music. 
 
 “It makes you forget the bitterness of the life, the unfairness, and the cruelty of everything,” she says of music. “Music is not cruel. It’s always peace and love.” ||||| We are a team of students, staff, professors, and alumni from Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) on a mission to bring a college education to survivors of human trafficking. 
 
 
 
 Our campaign, to seed The Beauty for Ashes Fund at PLNU with $40,000, is about hope. Sex and labor trafficking has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and around the world. PLNU's Center for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR) is engaged in the issue of human trafficking locally, nationally and internationally providing leadership in research and community organizing. As the CJR works with direct service providers, law enforcement and other movement leaders - and when we talk to survivors, we keep hearing the same message - survivors dream of a college education! Our campaign, to seed The Beauty for Ashes Fund at PLNU with $40,000, is about hope. Sex and labor trafficking has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and around the world. PLNU's Center for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR) is engaged in the issue of human trafficking locally, nationally and internationally providing leadership in research and community organizing. As the CJR works with direct service providers, law enforcement and other movement leaders - and when we talk to survivors, we keep hearing the same message - survivors dream of a college education! Securing the resources to fund a college education can seem impossible to a survivor. We don't think it should be. We believe one of the most critical components to the long-term rehabilitation of a survivor is a university education. And you can play a part. The money raised from this campaign will go to support the education of survivors of human trafficking. We look at it this way - an education in the loving, academically challenging and carefully mentored environment of a Christian university can take someone from Victim to Survivor to Thriver. 
 
 
 
 Our Goal and Your Part 
 
 Here's the plan: The funds raised during our campaign will predominantly go toward the tuition, room and board of survivors who are accepted as students at PLNU. A small portion will go for student vocational discernment and an even smaller proportion for the administrative support of these students. 
 
 It's our plan to fund more than one student. With other financial aid, $40,000 can go along way. But remember that this is only seed money! 
 
 We will fund someone as early as September 2015 and already have survivors in the process of applying 
 
 Your donation is tax deductible! 
 
 Perks or No Perks? 
 
 Crowdfund campaigns often focus on "perks". We have a different approach. We believe that you want the money to go to survivors, too, so we're banking on the fact that it's not the perks that will get you to participate - it's making the dream a reality that matters. The perks we have are donated by campaign supporters. 
 
 If we don't reach our goal of $40,000 PLNU will still receive all of the funds raised and all of the money raised will still go to the Beauty for Ashes Fund at PLNU. 
 
 
 
 If we don't reach our goal of $40,000 PLNU will still receive all of the funds raised and all of the money raised will still go to the Beauty for Ashes Fund at PLNU. 
 
 
 
 Because it Matters 
 
 Did you know? Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud or coercion. 
 
 Many don't know that it happens in our own neighborhoods, but it does. Possibly as close to you as the nearest high school or hotel. 
 
 
 
 It's not just an immigrant issue, but involves scores of our own teens. It’s organized, seductive and at times extremely violent, with traffickers representing every social and racial group, working independently and in nationwide rings. 
 
 
 
 Using force, drugs, emotional tactics and financial methods to control their victims, the perpetrators abuse, coerce and control adults, youth and children as young as 12-14 years old. Facing the epidemic proportion of the problem of sex and labor trafficking is daunting. But from the highest levels of government to “on the street” direct service providers there is a movement sweeping our nation to end modern day slavery in America. More victims are being rescued. More perpetrators are being prosecuted. More organizations are stepping up to provide rescue, rehabilitation and a future for survivors. 
 
 Why it Matters to Us 
 
 Point Loma Nazarene University, in San Diego, California, is a nationally prominent Christian university. The university exists to provide higher education in a vital Christian community where minds are engaged and challenged, character is modeled and formed, and service becomes an expression of faith. It is precisely because of this mission that human trafficking matters to us. PLNU is an institution of the Church of the Nazarene. If you've looked into the roots of the Church of the Nazarene you'll know that the church was founded on the principles of reaching the marginalized. It's who we are at our core - always have been and always will be. 
 
 With this Fund we are standing behind our mission statement, not just for the privileged youth of our culture, but also for the most vulnerable. We are a university for those who were once captives, as well as for those who want to set the captives free. 
 
 
 
 Other Ways You Can Help We understand that some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean you can't help: Help us get the word out about our campaign. Tell your friends. Share it on social media. Every voice matters. 
 
 Like our Facebook page and share, comment and like our posts 
 
 
 
 Use the Share tools on Indigogo! Talk about it on your blog. Tweet it. Facebook it. Spread the word. 
 
 Want to get involved in our work at PLNU or find out how you can plug in to the movement in your community? Contact us at BeautyforAshes@pointloma.edu. 
 
 
 
 Our Campaign in the Press 
 
 
 
 KPBS San Diego TV interview with Dr. Jamie Gates and Charisma De Los Reyes 
 
 
 
 Fox San Diego TV: Interview with Dr. Jamie Gates 
 
 
 
 Fox News: Christian College to offer free education 
 
 The Examiner: PLNU offers first of its kind scholarship 
 
 USA TODAY College edition: Human Trafficking Survivors offered scholarship 
 
 
 
 Thank you for being a part of this story. Because it matters. 
 
 More Scoop on the Perks - and some NEW Perks 
 
 
 
 New Perk Added! 
 
 A PLNU alum has designed and donated a beautiful Rising Lotus Soap for the Beauty for Ashes Fund. 
 
 
 
 Designed for and donated to the Beauty for Ashes Fund by The Moontree. The Moontree specializes in handmaking quality items from fair trade and organic materials.The Rising Lotus soap bar was created by a PLNU alum. The symbol of the lotus represents resilience and beauty, a balance of grace and strength - rising above the surface to spread beauty.All proceeds from sales of the Rising Lotus soap will be donated to the Beauty for Ashes Fund by The Moontree. www.ShopTheMoontree.com We're excited to provide a variety of perks for this campaign, all of which have been donated by campaign supporters. 
 
 Newest perk - featuring Micah who brought it at our Just Saying! event and Fund launch last week: 
 
 One of a kind Perk - artist Ellen Maley generously donated her work to our Fund. Ellen painted this work during our Just Saying! event last week: 
 
 You can claim your perk or not. If you claim the perk, the value of the perk is deducted from your donation for tax deduction purposes. Your receipt will indicate the full amount of your donation. It is your responsibility to claim the fair market value of the perk.
– A comatose woman who roused to deliver her baby and a Holocaust survivor who gets a special night are among the week's most uplifting stories: Woman Emerges From Coma, Delivers Baby: Jenny Quiles was 33 weeks pregnant when she was hit by a truck as she crossed the street. Two weeks later, the Florida woman emerged from a coma, and on Wednesday, she began having contractions. Four hours later, she gave birth to a "miracle" baby girl. Her daughter is fine, while Quiles is in critical condition but "improving every day," says her doctor. Holocaust Survivor to Play Lincoln Center: A musician makes her solo debut in a Lincoln Center concert next week, but it's a safe bet you've never heard of her. Emily Kessler, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor who now lives in New York City, will strum her mandolin and sing folk songs to help raise money for other survivors. She was picked for her amazing story of bravery as a teen evading the Nazis. Widower's Dinner Date: Photo of Late Wife: Determined not to forget his true love after her death five years ago, an elderly man has been bringing along a photo of her during his outings to a California burger joint. Patrons have noticed, and photos of the loving husband have gone viral. Off-Duty Cop Finds $120K, Returns It to Owner: It could have been easy money. But when an off-duty sergeant with the California Highway Patrol found two bags on the road stuffed with $120,000 in cash, she reported the find instead of helping herself. Turns out, it was apparently someone's life savings. University's Plan: Help Sex Slavery Survivors: A Christian university in California has launched what it says is a first-of-its-kind scholarship to help survivors of sex trafficking start new lives. Point Loma Nazarene University has started a crowdfunding campaign and a longer-term donation page. Click for more uplifting stories.