Eleven-year-old Gracie was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was 3 years old, says her father, Steve Johnson. She began having seizures when she was 2 years old. The DeKalb resident, who says Gracie still has about two dozen seizures a day, hopes Hope Fest raises awareness for the brain disorder. “She has a lot of absence seizures, where she zones out for a few seconds at a time,” Johnson said. “I think we need to have more events like Hope Fest so people who have epilepsy know that there are services in DeKalb that can help them.”
