RINCON — Mike Muldowney isn’t one to sit idly. He craves to be part of the action, making him perfectly suited to be the governor of Rotary District 6920.

Muldowney visited the Rotary Club of Effingham County on Thursday to implore its members to get involved in their community.

“This is the one meeting that you don’t invite me to. I invite myself,” Muldowney said. “This is fun. I ride around inviting myself to 62 different clubs.”

 Rotary International is the oldest Service organization in the world with more than 1.23 million members.

“We do service and we do all these things but Rotary is really this club,” Muldowney said. “Rotary is each individual club. What you do in this community, what you do for your community and for each other— that’s what makes Rotary. That’s the service that we are talking about — service here.”

Muldowney, a New York native, has been involved in Rotary since 2001 when he joined a club in St. Simon’s Island. His membership came close to being short lived, however, because he felt ignored.

“I was ready to get out of there. I had my resignation written out,” he said.

Muldowney’s membership was salvaged when a member he didn’t know asked him to co-chair a Rotary project.

“If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here because I joined Rotary for what I thought was important, and that was to serve my community,” he said. “If those folks weren’t going to include me, I didn’t want anything to do with it.”

Muldowney encouraged the local club to expand its membership and be receptive to ideas that might help people.

“We need to ask our friends and our acquaintances to come join us,” he said.

Muldowney went to highlight some of Rotary’s worldwide success stories, including its fight against polio, illiteracy and Alzheimer’s.

“Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves,” Muldowney said while reading the Rotary theme.

Rotary District 6920 Assistant Gov. Andy Lohn said Muldowney lives up to Rotary ideals.

“I’ve had the privilege of knowing Mike for a few years now and he truly has a heart for Rotary, and has a servant’s heart, which fits right in our creed, which is, ‘Service above self,”’ Lohn said.

The Rotary Club of Effingham County meets each Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Rincon.