Kim Bergen honored by YWCA for business

Kim Bergen recently was chosen as the latest honoree in the area of business at the YWCA Tribute to Exceptional Women. The event was sponsored by Pottstown Memorial Medical Center and was held in early November at Brookside Country Club in Pottstown.Bergen was first nominated for the award eight years ago, but was not chosen as the winner. She said she believes it was because she wasn't involved in the community.

Her original nomination motivated her to learn more about the YWCA, which led to her joining the Board. She then got involved with Leadership Tri-County for approximately a year, assisted the Boyertown YMCA with a capital campaign, and began volunteering for Relay for Life.

"I went from doing nothing to doing a lot," Bergen said. "I always felt you should give back to your community. It's very important to give back. I really love to be involved. Everybody should do it."

Although Bergen volunteers because she finds it gratifying to do something to better the community, she is grateful for being chosen as this year's honoree.

"I was surprised that I was nominated because it's just nice to be recognized. It was quite humbling," Bergen explained. "Although you don't volunteer to be recognized, you get involved because you love to do it."
As Bergen explained, the YWCA Tribute to Exceptional Women awards women who are outstanding in their industries, give back to the community, and are good role models. As the mother of a 9-year– old girl, Bergen understands that today's youth need to find good role models in the real people around them who are doing good in their communities, instead of looking up to actors or athletes.

"I think our young teenagers need to see good role models. I've got to do right by my daughter, and lead by example," Bergen said.

Bergen is the founder and owner of Bergen Polymers, a plastics trading company located in Gilbertsville. Her business involves purchasing post-industrial plastics, which are shipped to facilities to be ground and compressed into smaller sizes and then sold to companies to be reprocessed into other useable products, often for the housing industry, such as drainage pipes, PVC fencing and decking.

As Bergen describes her job, "I'm like a stock broker, but with plastics. I really love what I do. It's definitely great for the environment. I feel like I'm doing my own thing to help the environment and making a living at it as well."

Bergen is a life-long resident of the area. She grew up in the Pottsgrove area, attended Pottsgrove High School, and later graduated from Kutztown University with a degree in education.

When she was unable to obtain a teaching position after college, she eventually ended up working at Edwards Enterprises, a paper and plastic recycling company. When Edwards shut down, two employees went on to start their own recycling company, KJ Plastics, and Bergen was hired at the new company.

She learned the business from working at these companies and, in 1997, decided to branch out and start a plastics recycling business of her own. Much to her surprise, she received a great deal of support and mentoring from friends and contacts that she had made in the industry, which was invaluable as she opened Bergen Polymers.

"Their support was really quite overwhelming to me," Bergen explained. "I've tried to do that for others too."
She started Bergen Polymers because she wanted to earn a living and still be involved as a mom. She was able to manage trading plastics from home when her daughter was an infant, and is now able to tailor her schedule to participate in her daughter's school functions and activities.

"It gives me the flexibility to be a good mom. This kind of is the American Dream. Although it's stressful running a business, the joy and flexibility of it outweighs the stress," Bergen said.

Bergen encourages other women to find what they love to do and go after their aspirations.

"If you have the dream," Bergen explained, "you should follow through with it. I had the unique opportunity to learn a business and have the support of my family and friends to do it. I took a chance and went with it, and it was successful. If you believe in something, you should do it, because you don't want to live your life saying, 'I should have.'"