On a dangerous seacoast, where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea.  With no thought of themselves, they went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost.

Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station, and give of their time, money, effort for the support of the work. New boats were bought and new crews were trained.  The life saving station grew!

Some of the members of the life saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds, and put better furniture in the enlarged building.  Now the life saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they now used it as a sort of club!

Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired boat crews to do this work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club's decorations, and there was a liturgical life boat in the room where the club initiations were held.

About this time, a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick, and some, yellow-skin. The beautiful new club house was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club, where the victims of the shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's life saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal life of the club. Some members insisted on life-saving as their primary purpose for existence, and pointed out, they were still called a life-saving station! But they were finally voted down, and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station further down the coast. They did!

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet, another life-saving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit the coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters--but most of the people drown!