Director Sumption replied to my open letter on August 25, 2025. Here is her response, followed by mine. Because my original letter was open, it is important that Director Sumption’s reply be part of the same public record. I acknowledge her response here, alongside my own, so the exchange remains transparent and whole.
Dear Sam,
Thank you for taking the time to share your perspective and for your service as a volunteer with Oregon State Parks. I hear the depth of your concern, and I recognize the effort you have put into documenting and expressing your experience.
Volunteers are an essential part of Oregon State Parks, and I want to be clear that I value the contributions you and others make to our mission. The issues you have raised touch on matters of respect, accountability, and the importance of ensuring that those who give their time to serve the public feel supported.
While I cannot respond here to the specific claims you have outlined, I want to assure you that I take concerns about our volunteer program seriously. I am committed to ensuring that we continue to foster an environment where volunteers and staff alike can contribute meaningfully, feel safe, and be treated with professionalism.
I appreciate you sharing your perspective, and I will make sure your concerns are reviewed through the appropriate channels within the department.
Respectfully,
Lisa Sumption
Director
Oregon Parks and Recreation Department
My Response to Director Sumption’s Letter
I want to begin by acknowledging the courage it took for Director Sumption to write this letter. This was not performative. To break a silence this heavy requires measurable force of character.
I only wish that courage extended to real protection for volunteers. In this moment, it does not.
Still, her letter represents something significant: the first true acknowledgment of my experience by anyone at OPRD. Even if it is flattened into “perspective,” even if it avoids substance, it is still a break in the silence.
For that, I honor her words.
As I wrote in my open letter, repair is not possible in my case. I love Oregon State Parks, and it is precisely that love that makes the harm irreparable. When you are harmed by something you love, it alters the field.
What I wanted from leadership was prevention — structural safeguards to ensure no one else endures what I did. That was a sincere and reasonable request. And it is absent from her response.
This letter offers no such safeguards. It commits to nothing. Words are soft; structure is hard. Words without action reveal only emptiness, and emptiness cannot protect anyone.
Her letter risks serving as a signal to those within the institution that it is business as usual. And that means it is inevitable someone else will experience what I did. It could be happening right now.
That clarity is what fuels me.
I had hoped this moment would move the director. She still has the opportunity to set a gold standard for how unpaid labor is treated under her leadership. That would not only protect those who serve, it would become part of her legacy.
Hope is not lost — not yet. Not while even one of us holds it up to the light. And I am holding it.
I now await response to my public records request. That documentation will add clarity to the institutional record. Together, these documents — her letter, my response, and the forthcoming records — will stand as part of the same archive.
—Sam White
“You made a move. I see it. I honor it as a human act. But I will not confuse motion with transformation.”