Meet Norah And Claudia Kerrigan | Founder of Wild and Worthy and co founder of Wild and Worthy

We had the good fortune of connecting with Norah And Claudia Kerrigan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Norah and Claudia, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Winter the dolphin from the true story movie “Dolphin Tale” was our inspiration to start this business. Norah has been obsessed with Winter since 2011 when the first movie came out. In 2013, she was diagnosed with autism, but her parents chose not to tell her immediately. She really struggled in school, she hated loud sounds, and she did not understand why people did not like her. When she saw “Dolphin Tale” she felt like, “if Winter can do hard things, I can too”. In 2017 she wrote a short story about a girl finding out that she had autism. In the middle of writing that story, her mom and dad told her that she had autism and it made so much sense to her. In 2020, her mom applied for a scholarship from Clearwater Marine Aquarium to go see Winter and told them about Norah’s special connection with Winter and how it has helped her live with autism. She got accepted!! So her family got to go see her for free. It was amazing!! 3 weeks later she died and I was very sad. That is when we started talking about this business and how it would be in Winter’s memory. In 2024, Norah started having major stomach pain and in January of 2024 she had her gallbladder out. After surgery she came out having non- stop seizures. Norah has never had a seizure in her life. A year and half later she is still having seizures, but much fewer. She says “the blessing of my seizures is that we started this business to help other kids with special needs feel the connection I did with Winter.”

Claudia has always had a special connection with animals since she was little. Her family always said that she was the animal whisperer. Claudia was Diagnosed with autism and Glut 1 (a rare neurological disorder) in 2013. Winter and she inspired her to learn how to be different and how to be herself. Claudia wanted to start this business because she wanted to help animals with similar needs like her.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Living with unique and special needs in this world is hard and can feel lonely. Wild and Worthy works to encourage people living with unique needs through meeting and engaging with animals who have similar needs. We help encourage people with unique and challenging needs to feel understood, know they can do hard things, and learn to thrive.

Starting this business was hard and easy at the same time. It was hard starting the website because I had to learn a lot about web design but it was easy because we have a mom who owns her own business so she helped us get all the other stuff started. It was also easy because we had a dream and we wanted there to be a place for people like us to meet animals with similar needs like us.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We love going to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We love being outside and being with animals at the Giggling Life Care Farm. We also loving going to different parks. We love eating at Ras Kassa’s Ethiopian Restaurant, and Chi Lin at Stanley Market Place. Our favorite Ice cream place is Sweet Cow and Little Mans Ice Cream.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Clear Water Marine Aquarium
My mom Teresa
My Dad Joe
My Family

Website: https://www.wildandworthy.org

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WildandWorthy1

Image Credits
Joy Castillo Photography