Influencer and Advocate Hayley Culverwell On a Mission to End Stigma

Influencer, Hayley Culverwell is best known for her viral entertaining and adorable videos featuring a family of raccoons. Not just any family of raccoons, this is a family that she has befriended.
Culverwell’s videos, where she is feeding and entertaining the raccoons, started at the onset of the pandemic. These videos have gone viral on sites such as The Dodo and Inside Edition. Hayley Culverwell, as many, had to spend a great deal of time at home during the pandemic, beginning in early 2020. Culverwell’s pandemic experience involved befriending a rather large family of raccoons. Having been surrounded by animals her entire life, raccoons were not one of them. Culverwell states, “Like many people, I unknowingly bought into the stigma surrounding who they are, and I incorrectly thought of them as a nuisance - until I met them myself and took the time to get to know them to learn how amazing they are.” Continuing, “It wasn’t until the onset of the pandemic that they made me aware that I had been entirely wrong about them, and now I know that they are clever, adorable, sweet and even immensely hospitable toward those who love them.” Culverwell’s family of raccoons visit her home frequently, to the point that she has named everyone. One of the raccoons even brought her a stray cat in need of home, whom she adopted. According to Culverwell, she has “vaccinated and dewormed the family of raccoons responsibly,” as a precaution before they began to invite themselves in as house guests. The following video features the family of raccoons that Culverwell The Dodo - Family of Raccoons. Sometimes, as in Brady’s case, they are resourceful as they find a way to make an entrance. Brady is a member of the family of raccoons who “breaks in” by opening at the side of the attachment from her air conditioning unit. Brady is featured here:
Brady Breaks In Through the A/C Unit. In addition to creating much needed awareness for amazing animals, animals that many don’t know much about such as raccoons, Hayley Culverwell’s stance in the media and forthcoming podcast episodes also involves standing up for people who have experienced unjust bias and stigma, too.

Hayley Culverwell’s close friend, former boss and mentor Leanna Thornton will always be an inspiration and a motivating force for Culverwell, as she continues to take a stand to end stigma in a variety of ways, as her friend did, taking steps and using her inspirational voice to end the stigma associated with HIV. Hayley Culverwell and Leanna Thornton met in October of 2017 when Hayley began working as a healthcare worker inside a Correctional Facility; Thornton was her supervisor. Culverwell states, “We were as much alike as we were different, yet we worked seamlessly together with each of us possessing strengths that the other needed. Leanna Thornton was a spokesmodel working to help end the stigma and epidemic associated with those living with HIV, as she tested positive from birth, and was “HIV undetectable.” Leanna Thornton sadly passed away in November of 2021. Culverwell’s stance to end stigma will help to carry on Leanna’s legacy, as well as to end unjust bias in many other ways too, stating, “It’s important to me to keep Leanna’s legacy alive because of how compassionate and relatable she was and the impact she had to people living with HIV. I want to help fulfill her goals of her work to keep her memory and to keep her advocacy work alive, and to continue her legacy for her daughters.” Hayley Culverwell will continue to honor her memory by perpetuating the truth and reducing stigma across the board for other humanitarian related causes in addition to HIV, such as: Mental Health Awareness, Autism, Criminal Justice Reform and a variety of other topics where stigma is often present, and to also speak up for innocent animals, who need our voice.

Hayley Culverwell is also the founder of a project called E-9 Search and Rescue, a project dedicated to training horses to track and / or trail for search and rescue services. The desire to develop this project and to further study this practice started for Hayley due to an experience she had as a young girl, when her horse helped her find another one of her horses before an impending storm, when she couldn’t locate him herself.

“I want to expand peoples’ knowledge and mine too regarding animals, and I plan to work with animal behaviorists and other experts for forthcoming webisodes, and from a humanitarian perspective, I want to meet and interview people of various backgrounds too, who may have also experienced unjust bias and stigma, to help light on the shadows where ignorance and judgment dwell all across the board.” Continuing, “The world feels so chaotic and divided at times and I want to help in some way in uniting us by reducing stigma. Stigma is such a broad topic from mental health and chronic illnesses to misunderstood animals such as the raccoons, I want to help shine the light on the truth and end stigma for humans and animals. I’ve learned so much since the pandemic started about raccoons and I know I, and many others, have a lot more to learn to proceed with love and compassion for all.”

Follow Hayley on all of her social media platforms to include Facebook, Instagram and TikTok @hayleykcl. Her mini horse, Pilot is on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter under “A Horse Named Pilot.” Culverwell is also a mechanical engineer, and a photography contributor for iStock by Getty Images.

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