WOODSFIELD — Residents Madison Morisco and Kaitlin Kinney are stepping up to help their fellow neighbors who were injured in the recent orphan well site explosion in Independence Township, Washington County.

The duo are selling raffle tickets for $5 each to raise money for three Monroe County residents caught in the explosion — Remington Weckbacher, Chazz Bates, and Christopher Pinkerton — to assist with medical expenses.

Six people were injured in the late August explosion, five from Monroe Drilling Operations and an inspector from the Ohio Department of National Resources. The crew was plugging an orphaned well — a well with no owner — in Wayne National Forest. The injured workers were first taken to Memorial Health System and later transported by medical helicopters to other facilities.

“It’s close to home. I feel like Monroe County is a really tight knit community, and I feel like everybody usually comes together when something bad happens,” Morisco said.

Kinney said that her children attend Beallsville Elementary and the mother of one of the injured workers is a secretary at the school, so she felt that she needed to step up and help.

“Our school district is all connected so it makes it better and easier for everybody who wants to donate,” Kinney said. “Our motto is, ‘always together is better.'”

She added that she and Morisco are just trying to help the community because she believes Monroe County is filled with residents who help out as much as they can.

“We’re a small community, but we’re all spread out in different schools and all but we still always just seem to come together and support one another,” Morisco said.

She added that during difficult times is when a small community like Monroe County tends to pull through for each other.

Morisco said that she believes the reasoning the community tends to come together and help is because it is such a tight-knit community. When a tragedy happens, she said it tends to make people want to help because they understand the need. She said those residents also understand that if their family went through something traumatic and needed the community’s help, they would want their neighbors to do the same.

Tickets will be sold until October 11th.

First prize is a gift card tree worth nearly $600. Second prize is a YETI tailgate cooler filled with various football themed accessories. Third prize is a $50 gift card to JLK Carry Out in Beallsville. Fourth prize is a coffee lover’s basket filled with various coffee treats, and fifth prize is a 19.5-inch stainless steel smokeless wood burning firepit.

Those interested in purchasing raffle tickets can contact either Morisco or Kinney on Facebook or call Morisco at 740-213-8296 or Kinney at 740-213-3045.

Both Kinney and Morisco wanted to thank the community for its participation and asked for everybody to continue to send prayers to the injured workers and their families.

“They’re improving, so I think that if people want to continue to pray that could help,” Kinney said.