Compassion in Action | Tabitha Logan

I was a barber for 14 years. It was a career I found very rewarding in terms of people I got to know, but over time I also began to feel my life was too focused on the external. I started looking inward to find what made me happy. I found that making candles was a healing, meditative practice that relaxed me. I also knew I wanted to make a difference for non-human animals. I’d always felt a special bond with the Hippo. Putting the two together, it became the start of my candle company, Hipponotic Candle. As for “why hippos?,” I feel they’re misunderstood in a way I could personally relate to. People seem to be deeply judgmental about these amazing animals, and I wanted to shed some light both metaphorically and literally. Key to this understanding of the hippo was a book called A Hippo Love Story by Karen Paolillo. Her story and the story of the Hippos she saved deeply inspired me, and as such, I vowed to donate 10% of all candle proceeds to “The Turgwe Hippo Trust”, “adopting Hippos” whenever I’d sold enough candles.

It was about 6 years ago that I began attending festivals and events as a vendor. It was through the experience of being a vendor that I learned both what I wanted to see in an event, and the kinds of vendors that I wanted to help. It has been an incredible honor to have gotten to know so many amazing people through these events. Crafters/product-providers, entrepreneurs, small businesses, non-profits, and just plain “good folk,” thinking globally and acting locally, looking to create positive change in their community. Ultimately, I began to consider the idea of a whole new kind of community-based event centered around these people and principles of community. The idea bounced around in my mind for a year or so, but came to life when I set foot on the Whitneyville Cultural Commons in Hamden, Connecticut. It was a feeling that is hard to describe. Basically, I saw the whole event I’d envisioned unfold in my mind as I walked on the grounds. It felt less like a idea than an energy that came to me. That’s when Compassionfest was born. I just knew it had to happen.

The mission of Compassionfest is to unite like-minded people who believe in the values of being just, kindness, equity and compassion. The ideas of Compassionfest represent something that should happen every day, and as such, the event itself is a day when we particularly focus on making it happen; a day to bring your best self forward, leave all divides behind, and resonate on our common ground with absolute respect for one another. It is an all-welcoming event, a festival of inclusiveness, where everyone should be comfortable to be simply as they are, allowing that same acceptance for those around them. With those principles in place, we also include the rest of the animal kingdom in the idea of Compassionfest. The animals we share the earth with need love and acceptance just as we do. This is the basis for veganism as a core component of Compassionfest. All vendors must be vending 100% vegan, meaning not only that all their foods are only plant-based, but all products manufactured are cruelty-free as well.