[gentle music]
- Rebecca Lakowske: People have no idea what they're looking at.
It stands out just because it's not something you see
everywhere, every day.
- Ryan Lakowske: Our mold graveyard has become
an unintentional attraction to a lot of people.
This weird odditity of a field
that has a bunch of skeletons left over from projects.
There's a lot of life left in that graveyard.
I'm Ryan Lakowske, and this is my wife Rebecca.
We own FAST Fiberglass. [hammering]
We make a lot of fiberglass animals
and statues of all kinds.
And waterpark slides,
or anything that the industry calls for.
[television static] - We found a clue
in our mystery about where these big critters come from.
- Rebecca: The beginnings of FAST really started
in the late '60s, early '70s.
That's where the whole idea had started.
The business switched hands to another owner two more times,
and then in 2020, Ryan and I purchased the business.
[equipment buzzing]
One of the cool things about having a business
that is well established and well known
is that there are a lot of notable projects
that have already been done.
[bright music]
- Ryan: One of the most recognizable projects
that FAST has been involved with
is the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame
up in Hayward, Wisconsin.
A lot of people have seen the pink elepant.
That's a big known one.
- Rebecca: The Paul Bunyan in the Dells
is another one that people recognize,
especially for its size.
We have products that have gone all over the United States.
- Ryan: 30-foot eyeball, that was in Chicago for a while,
and dogs balancing taxi cabs on their nose in New York.
The company's had a past history of quite a few cool projects.
But we're doing our own thing now too,
and we got a few cool ones under our belt.
Some of the current pieces we're working on here
is a nine-foot dog that we're making for service vet dogs.
We're making a Santa sleigh golf cart.
We're hoping to get that in the parade this year.
We just finished up a shark.
It's for a car wash down in Georgia.
And you drive right through the mouth.
- One of our bigger, more notable projects that we did
was a flamingo that's at the Tampa Bay airport,
and this was one where we worked with an artist on it.
It's a 26-foot flamingo neck, as well as the feet.
An airport has hundreds of thousands of people
that view it, so it was a fun way
to really get our name out there.
- Some days, it feels like playing, you know?
It feels like, you know, you can take other people's ideas
and dreams and try to turn 'em into reality.
The main thing that we've changed since owning the place
is we've brought a lot more technology into it.
A lot of the custom jobs that we do now
are done through the computer,
so it eliminates a lot of the trial and error.
- Rebecca: So Ryan and I have three kids.
It's been really fun as they get older
to see them become more involved and more interested.
They're able to learn how a business runs
and be able to see where they can fit into it.
After school, they run over and check the catalog box,
and if it's empty, they go get catalogs
and they put it in the box.
As our oldest is now 12,
he's becoming more and more interested in the business,
and it's really fun to watch him grow and learn.
He is really into technology,
definitely takes after his father.
- See that? - Yeah.
- Instead of it being so tight, it turns into a big, wide one.
- Rebecca: So he's been learning a lot of the computer programs.
- Dexton Lakowske: Some skills that I've gained in school
goes directly to what I do here because it's like,
science, engineering, math, and technology.
- They find where they fit in here
and what they can do, and they really enjoy it.
[child grunting] - Okay.
- Rebecca: It's a pretty big space for kids,
and what kid wouldn't just absolutely love it here?
- Get that laid out then
and just start putting the black down?
- I think I would.
The rest of the team too, I mean,
honestly, they're starting to feel like family too.
The years of experience that they all have under their belt.
They've been a part of this company before we owned it.
They've taught me so much.
I couldn't do it without them.
Of course, I want the company to grow.
I want it to be here for the kids.
The most important part to me
is the business itself is still running.
And it's still taking care of not only our family,
but the family of all of the employees
and people that we have here with us.
- Rebecca: FAST has built a good name over the years,
and it's not only our job but responsibility
to keep that going.
[bright music]