​Camp 24 is how Todd Kelly Jr. stays connected to football and Zaevion Dobson.Dobson was 15 when the Fulton football player was fatally shot shielding three friends from gunfire in December 2015. Kelly swapped his own jersey from No. 6 to No. 24 before the 2016 football season at Tennessee to honor Dobson’s heroics.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement”Even though I can’t run around like I used to, I just want to give back, specifically in the East Knoxville community, to honor and memorialize Zaevion Dobson,” Kelly said July 11 at the Emerald Youth Haslam-Sansom Ministry Complex.1 / 25Todd Kelly Jr. smiles at a football camp run at Emerald Youth Haslam-Sansom Ministry Complex in the Lonsdale neighborhood in Knoxville, Tenn., on July 11, 2026. Camp 24 is named after Zaevion Dobson, a young football player who was fatally shot in 2015.(Angelina Alcantar/ News Sentinel)Kelly led all SEC freshmen with three interceptions in 2014, then led the Vols with 71 tackles as a junior in 2016. A knee injury limited him to two games in 2017, and he retired from football after a reduced 2018 season.After earning earning a biological sciences degree at Tennessee, Kelly planned to head for medical school. Instead, he began working in finance and became a partner at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.”You look people in the eye,” Kelly said of what led someone to hire him in the business. “You’re trustworthy, you listen, you’re honest, all the things it would take to be a successful financial advisor. They gave me an opportunity.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThat’s the same standard he’s built Camp 24 around. Kelly’s TKJ Foundation has hosted the event for five years.”Character. That’s the number one goal,” Kelly said. “Whether it’s being a good teammate, being disciplined, learning how to listen, looking people in the eyes. All things that are applicable, not only on the field, but off the field.”Camp 24 isn’t headlined by a marquee NFL name to draw a crowd. Keeping it going, Kelly said, has meant leaning harder on the community.”It has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with the support system, the foundation, how we’ve grown,” Kelly said. “From coming out of our pockets, to now where we are having different corporate sponsors.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementKelly’s mother grew up in East Knoxville and attended Fulton, so for him, the mission was a calling and not a choice.Zenobia Dobson, Zaevion’s mother, plays a role in the camp every year, sharing her son’s story and love for the game with his Fulton football helmet at her side.”He got up from sun up to sundown, rain, sleet or snow,” Zenobia Dobson said. “He wrote his own plays and kept his own playbook. A lot of people don’t realize you have to study football. It’s not just showing up and playing. He was big on learning the game. He always listened to his coaches.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementA playground built in Dobson’s memory sits a few hundred feet from where cam