Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — Steve Harvey once said, “Don’t let your situation affect your determination.”

A group of six young men from the Miss Lou will be going on a chaperoned stay at the Steve and Marjorie Harvey Legacy Ranch on June 11 through 15 in Thomaston, Georgia.

They are Casen Campbell, 14, from Natchez Middle School; Randle Newell, 16, from Natchez Early College Academy; Bryceson Daniel, 13, from Ferriday Junior High School; Corey Nelson, 16, from Olive Branch; Jakavion Johnson, 17, from Hazelhurst High School and Jakaree Johnson, 13, from Hazelhurst Middle School.

Built on 1,600 acres, the ranch is a haven for mentorship camps and a resource for feeding those in need with its agricultural farms.

The camp Miss-Lou area youngsters will be participating in is designed specifically for young men between the ages of 13 and 18 without fathers at home.

Sponsoring the young men is the Seeds of Change Resource Foundation, a local non-profit organization led by Dr. Carolyn Myers.

“When I received the call from (the Harvey foundation), I thought it was a prank and didn’t answer at first,” Myers said. “So they emailed me and asked me to call them, so I did. When they asked me to join forces to get boys from our area to join in on the camp, because they never had any from the southern states, I hooped and hollered and shouted and thought my neighbors were going to call the police and tell them I’d gone crazy. But I was excited. Also, I felt it was an honor.”

To see the campers off, Myers invited judges, pastors and public officials to speak to them on Saturday at the Natchez City Council Chambers, including a representative from the Natchez Fire Department; Judge Al Johnson, Rev. Tracy Cusic, Attorney Tony Heidelberg, Calvin Butler, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. Nu Xi Chapter President Andrell Hardy, Danielle Terrell of the Bluff City Post and Adams County Tax Assessor Larry Hughes.

The campers were also showered with gifts such as gift cards to restaurants, a blanket, tumblers, campers’ kits and an “Our Daily Bread” daily devotional.

Myers said volunteers worked with area schools to get the names of children who qualify. Of 30 names, only the six young men who are going had filled out and returned their applications, she said.

“I said, Lord, thank you. We’ve got six, and six is better than none. Now, every year we have an opportunity to carry boys from all over the State of Mississippi and Louisiana to Steve Harvey’s camp. … I am so proud of these six young men, and I had to give the group a name, so I call them the ‘Miss-Lou Boyz 2 Men’ group. They are boys now, but they are on their way to becoming men.”