Outdoor sports can be canceled for lots of reasons, mostly due to rain outs and lightning, but for the first time ever, a game in Jefferson was canceled because of another reason.

Greene County Youth Athletic Association President Travis Warnke tells Raccoon Valley Radio they decided to call off t-ball games because of poor air quality. He recalls what happened that led to them canceling the t-ball games that were supposed to be played this past Wednesday.

“I remember that I was sitting at my desk and my phone just starts blowing up. I looked at it (and messages from board members and parents asked) ‘Do we need to cancel the games tonight?’ And I went outside and I looked and I thought, ‘Well, it’s not going to rain. What is this?” And then the warnings are starting showing up. All these different warnings about strenuous activities for young children and things like that because of the pollutants, the fire, the smoke (from wildfires in Canada). I never considered that.”  

Because of the Canadian wildfires, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued an air quality advisory earlier this week for the entire state. The DNR recommended that during the advisory, everyone was supposed to reduce long or intense outdoor activities because there were fine particles in the air that were either near or above what the Environmental Protection Agency deems to be safe. Warnke adds the difficult decision was made with the safety of the kids in mind. Even though the games will not be made up, the t-ball season ends July 12th.