my way in the dark because I didn’t want people to know how close I was to failing. One day I just decided to open myself up and ask for help. I went to my pastor, I asked my Bible study group for their prayers.” That’s when Walker said things started to happen at Fiberset. “Within ten days, $110,000 worth of business came in. I felt like we had been pulled out of the fire,” she recalls. But most blessings don’t come without challenges, and this influx of business meant Fiberset would have a whole new set of risks to deal with. “We had to adapt to a new way of doing business and a new set of clients. We had to get fifty percent up front and the rest after the completion of the project, and this was new for us. But the biggest change was in the new direction we found ourselves going.” Body armor was the newest addition to the Fiberset menu, and something Walker could have never predicted. “In 2005 we were asked to be the secondary supplier for body armor and work on some research and development to come up with a new generation of flexible body armor. We tried a couple of times with no success. I thought the customer was going to reach over the table, grab the contract, and say ‘thanks, but no thanks!’ Then, on the third try, we got it right. They asked us to produce 15,000 discs per week. It was incredible! This is something we did ourselves! No engineering consults, just us. And now we have a fully dedicated facility just for body armor and our project became a benchmark for the military. It was the most challenging, fun thing we’ve ever done.” Walker had so much fun with the R&D aspect of this project she decided the youth of the Mojave community needed a way to “cut their teeth” on science; to get in on the excitement of exploring, inventing, and creating. So Walker created the Intermediate Space Challenge, a project in which fourth, fifth, and sixth grade kids design and build rockets modeled after the X Prize.
Reap The Benefits Of Locating Your Company In The Arvin Enterprise Zone Program. Available Tax Incentives Include:
• Employee Hiring Credit • Significant Saving on Employee Hiring • Sales and Tax Credit • Business Expense Deduction • Central California Location • Trained Labor Force • Affordable Land and Low-Cost Utilities To get your business on the path to tax savings right away, call us at 661.854.3134 or visit us online.
WWW.ARVIN.ORG
Next Generation Flexible Body Armor has been a big item for Fiberset. The company produces over 15,000 disks for the vests each week!
A launch is held every year at the Mojave Air and Space Port. “We have over 1,000 kids participating now and Kevin McCarthy introduced a resolution [H.Res 411] to support the Intermediate Space Challenge,” she proudly notes. And as of late May, NASA has spearheaded the curriculum development for the program in addition to raising more funds overall. So from small-time repairs on fiberglass shop signs to composite tooling for the X-38 International Space Station Crew Return Vehicle and full-scale production of the next generation of flexible body armor, Marie Walker’s willingness to “get her hands dirty” and “let go and let God” jettisoned Fiberset into a new century. The ride may have been a bit bumpy, but Walker feels that “Fiberset is ready to reach for the stars!” v
www.bakersfieldmagazine.net / Summer 2010 35