‘I was sexually abused’ by then- owner of W.I.L.D./ W.A.T.E.R.S; more victims?

To the Editor:

Hey, I’m a sexual assault survivor of Peter Drutchal who used to own the W.I.L.D./W.A.T.E.R.S. in Warrensburg. I’m trying to get my story out in that community/area, as there are no doubt many survivors from his time there. I’ve been contacted by a few people who were victims/survivors from VT where he later operated the Adventure Quest school from 1989 to the early 1990s when he was first arrested for sexual assault of a minor and served over a decade in prison.

— John Stawicki, Leland, NC
stawicki.john@icloud.com

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[Editor’s note: The name of the business was corrected on Jan. 21, 2022. See note at end of the article.] •

Chronicle editor Mark Frost writes: We received the above email last Sept. 1.

I sent a follow-up to Mr. Stawicki, who provided much more detail, but it never made it into the paper.

Last week Mr. Stawicki emailed again. He included a link to a Jan. 12 story by television station WECT in Wilmington, North Carolina.

The story began:

“A judge sentenced Peter Drutchal to 30 years in prison Wednesday, after Drutchal pled guilty to sex crimes he committed against Wilmington children. He also pleaded guilty to the aggravating factor of taking advantage of a position of trust or confidence to commit the offenses. The crimes happened over a span of several years in the 1970s and 1980s, but the now-adult victims only recently came forward.

“John Stawicki, one of the men who survived Drutchal’s abuse, says he was inspired to pursue charges after seeing the young men come forward who had been abused by former New Hanover County Schools Teacher of the Year, Mike Kelly. Stawicki says he watched WECT’s four-part special on the school sex scandal in August 2020.”

The TV station’s story said: “Drutchal is now in his late 60s…If Drutchal is still alive when he becomes eligible for parole, Stawicki says he will work to make sure Drutchal stays behind bars so he can never hurt another child again.

“[The 30 year sentence] realistically guarantees that he’s not going to do it again. And that’s the biggest thing,” Stawicki told WECT. “I know he’s not going do it to me again. But he’s not going to do it to another kid. Which is the most important thing at this point.

“I can’t change what he did [to me]. He’s going to prison for it — that’s something — but I don’t really care about that. I care that he’s not doing what he does which is go out, establish a business, and recruit little kids and manipulate parents, and wreck their lives and families.”

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Details on the abuse

Here is additional detail that John Stawicki provided to The Chronicle last September in our original exchange of emails.

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Hi Mark,

When I was a kid around 10-11 years old I joined a group that was an offshoot of the BSA [Boy Scouts of America] called High Adventure, in Wilmington NC. The leader was Pete Drutchal. We did hiking, canoeing and kayaking, and camping trips to various places in NC, SC, GA, TN, and VA, as well as a month long trip out west to Glacier and Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks in 1981.

During most of these trips, Pete was sexually abusing me and at least two other boys every night. This went on for me from 1978-79 until 1982.

In 1982 Pete Drutchal moved to Warrensburg NY and started W.I.L.D./W.A.T.E.R.S. up on Glen Creek Road, moving to route 28 at the Glen in 1983 or 84. A few kids from Wilmington [North Carolina] went up there for the first few years, where the abuse continued during the first summer.

During that time Pete started another youth program with about 6-10 young boys, mostly from the Warrensburg, Thurman, and surrounding areas. Many of these boys displayed classic signs of sexual abuse, including acting out, drinking, smoking, and withdrawal from other activities and their families. I’ve tried to find some of them but I haven’t had any luck.

Pete was fired from W.I.L.D./W.A.T.E.R.S. in 1989 and immediately went to VT to start the Adventure Quest school. He continued abusing boys and was charged and convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a minor, as described in the article I attached which was written by Ann McAdams of WECT news in Wilmington, as well as in many articles that come up with a Google search of “Peter Drutchal VT.”

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The WECT story says:

“Decades after the abuse, 54-year-old Stawicki says he’s still traumatized. The experience at the hands of someone he trusted changed the trajectory of his life. He says he’s now on disability because of the mental toll Drutchal’s abuse had on him.

“‘I just compartmentalized it as best as I could,’ Stawicki explained. ‘And it was always there — always there. So you’re like thinking about something or doing something and doing a little project, but it’s always there. And, it’s just like this little film strip or something going in the background playing over and over again. I just tried to make sure no one knew about it more than anything because I was ashamed of it, or whatever, like I had done something wrong.’”

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Editor’s note: Douglas Azaert, who owns Wildwaters Outdoors Center, phoned after the above story was published. He said the letter and headline erred in using that name for the business that Peter Drutchal operated at this site in the 1980s.

We contacted John Stawicki, who sent the letter. He confirms “I’m mistaken” in calling it Wildwaters Outdoor Center, an error that we have now corrected.

Mr. Stawicki said the name of the business that the child sex abuser Mr. Drutchal ran here in the 1980s was W.I.L.D./W.A.T.E.R.S.

“The acronym,” writes Mr. Stawicki, “stood for ‘wilderness institute for leadership development/wilderness adventures, training, education and river school’. But us kids called it the Outdoor Center because that came from his business in Wilmington, which he directly stole from the Nantahala Outdoor Center in NC.”

The existing Wildwaters Outdoor Center is a dba [doing business as] of Adirondack Kayak Touring Company, said Mr. Azaert. He said the business dates from 1990 or 1991 and that he has owned it since it began.

The business is located on Route 28 in Warrensburg where it crosses the Hudson River on the way to Johnsburg.

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