EAST LONGMEADOW – Students and staff at Mountain View Elementary School participated in a fundraiser walk-a-thon for fifth grader Alex Blais, 10, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor over the winter holiday season last year.

Students in grades 3 to 5 walked around the school’s field on the morning of Oct. 7 in support of “Team Alex,” which was created to help support Blais and his family while he continues battling an anaplastic astrocytoma brain tumor.

“Everyone at Mountain View wanted to let Alex know that we were thinking of him and rooting for him,” Amy Pelzek, school psychologist, told Reminder Publications. “We decided to organize this walk to let him know that [and] also to raise money for the family and to let the kids show their support as well.”

Pelzek said students collected donations per lap and would bring in the funds raised during the event in the next week.

“A lot of families made very generous flat donations,” she noted. “We also sold T-shirts. We have about $1,000 donated to the family on the T-shirt sales and so far we have about $1,500 in donations.”

She said she believes the best part of the event was being able to see Alex with his family and witnessing students saying, ‘Hello,’ to him and giving Alex high-fives.

“He has been really excited to see them,” Pelzek said. “He’s been dancing and [giving] fist pumps.”

Margaret Blais, Alex’s mother, said her son continues to undergo chemotherapy – he takes two sessions of chemotherapy daily – and has physical therapy and occupational therapy training on a regular basis.

“He has a very busy schedule, but we have seen improvement with him talking more and developing his strength and everything,” she noted.

Margaret said she considers the fundraising efforts for her son to be heartwarming.

“The whole community is very much behind Alex and it just means a lot to us how much love he’s been shown by people,” she added. “Alex loves sports. He loves playing outside with his friends. He’s been more limited doing things, but it’s still Alex and he still smiles and still laughs and he still likes things that 10 year olds like to do like playing video games and hanging out with people … It’s been great not being at the hospital. It’s been nice being at home and spending time as a family.”