The last of the original board members of Birchwood Funeral Chapel in Steinbach has stepped down. Elbert Toews chaired his last annual general meeting this week, after spending 20 years on the board.

Toews says 2016 was a record-breaking year for the co-op. Last year they handled 332 funerals, an all-time high. By the end of 2016, there were 3092 shareholders and 1500 funeral arrangements on file. Last year Birchwood experienced profits worth $200,000 and the board has declared a dividend credit of 5%.

Birchwood Funeral Chapel was born in 1997. Toews had just completed 40 years of teaching and administering schools when the opportunity to form a funeral co-op presented itself. Toews says it was a board of five people, each with a very different background, creating something of which there was no mold in Manitoba.

"There were some serious bumps in the road as we worked our way through this process," he recalls. "We finally got the business plan together and things started moving, sales began and within a year we were able to be in the building part of it."

Toews says they put shovel in the ground in the fall of 1997. He notes what the co-op is today, has far exceeded all expectations.

"It's quite a bit more than what we would have hoped for," he says. "We thought quite modestly in those days."

Toews says in the late 1990's, their basic objectives were to keep prices down and to "behave modestly" as opposed to corporations wanting to grow larger and larger. He says not only have they achieved those goals but the revenue that is generated goes back to families and stays in the community. There is nothing left to feed corporate investors.

"The story of Birchwood is one of success," shares Toews. "As we've been moving along and so on, we continue to do very well in terms of responding to community needs."

After serving as a board member since 1997, Toews says it is time to move on. He admits stepping down creates a certain level of anxiety, yet at the same time, he now has one less task to be concerned about.

Meanwhile, Gerry Sapinsky was elected to the board Tuesday night.