When the Cincinnati Bengals hosted the Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football, the Ro-Na was open to watch the game.

“This is the first time that we had the Ro-Na open for Thursday Night Football,” Suzy Hamlin, member of Friends of Ironton, said. “Since there are a lot of Browns and Bengals fans in the area, we thought that we would show the game at the Ro-Na. A lot of people don’t get the NFL Network at home either.”

The Ro-Na is also open on Saturdays for people to come watch college football all day.

“On Saturdays, the doors open at 11 a.m. and we are here until the last game of the night is over,” Hamlin said. “We usually get pretty good crowds for college football on Saturdays.”

The Friends of Ironton own and run the Ro-Na.

“We started working on the building in 2003,” Rick Jansen, president of Friends of Ironton, said. “After many renovations and a lot of re-modeling, we’ve been able to hold events here for three years now.”

Raising money, grants and donations have generated $1.5 million toward restoring the Ro-Na, and it won’t be completely finished for another estimated three or four years.

The side of the Ro-Na where they hosted the watch party for Thursday Night Football and host college football game days on Saturdays has tables and chairs as well as a bar that was built just for the Ro-Na.

Friends of Ironton is a group of local people who get together and help city officials improve the community.

Their biggest project has been restoring the Ro-Na, but they have also built the spray park that youth can enjoy in the summer as well as organize the annual motorcycle rally on the third week of August and the annual local Gus Macker three-on-three basketball tournament on the third week of May.

“When you go around and see kids in the spray park and other things that we have done to make Ironton a better place, you realize what kind of impact is being made by us,” Jansen said.

Friends of Ironton is all volunteer and is always looking for more help.

“We want to make Ironton the best place that it can be,” Jansen said.

If there is any interest in becoming a part of Friends of Ironton, call the Ro-Na at (740)-533-9797.