Lower Alabama is due to get a Labor Day boost from the ABC show "Secret Millionaire," which will feature a philanthropist's visit to the Mobile area in its Sept. 1 episode.

In each episode of the show, a millionaire goes incognito, paying a visit to “some of the most impoverished and dangerous neighborhoods in the country.” As ABC decribes it, their mission “is to discover deserving individuals who continually sacrifice everything to help those in need, and ultimately encourage others to do the same.”

In a surprise at the end of each episode, the mystery benefactor reveals his or her identity, and makes substantial donations to the featured organizations.

The star of the Sept. 1 episode is businessman Wing Lam, the co-founder of the Wahoo's Fish Taco Chain, a chain with dozens of locations in multiple states – none of which appear to be anywhere near southwest Alabama. It's not clear whether Lam has any connection to the Mobile area. According to an extensive Los Angeles Times profile, he was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and grew up in Orange County, Calif.



As for why southwest Alabama fits the impoverished and/or dangerous qualification, the show apparently will focus on the angle that Mobile is “a city still recovering from the devastating Gulf Oil Spill of 2010.”

An ABC press release says that during a week-long visit, “Lam meets a number of grass-roots organizations that touch and move him in amazing ways, including: Tri-Costal Community Outreach, a non-profit that provides immediate and long-term humanitarian services to low and moderate level income individuals and families in the Mobile area as well as 15 Place, a day shelter that serves as a one-stop center for the homeless … Lam also meets a local crabber and spends time with his family learning about the current state of the fishing industry.”

“After a week of getting to know these people and organizations,” the releases says, “Lam shares the surprise of a lifetime with them.”

"Secret Millionaire" airs at 7 p.m. central time Sundays on ABC.