GLOUCESTER — On what would have been the 35th birthday of the legend behind the Ice Bucket Challenge, hundreds of people ran into frigid water in Gloucester for the last time to honor the life of the late Pete Frates.

“We’ve done a lot of different events over the past eight years, but this one was always Pete’s favorite,” said Frates’ mother Nancy at the eighth and final “Plunge for Pete” at Good Harbor Beach on Saturday. “We feel like this is the right time to plunge and have it be our last one, and really hit it out of the park.”

The former Boston College baseball player died earlier this month after a seven-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, though not before helping to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for ALS research through the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Since 2012, the Frates family has been using “Plunge for Pete” as yet another way to fund research for a cure, though this year’s event raised nearly $400,000 to help cover the family’s outstanding medical bills, according to the family’s fundraiser pages on Facebook.

“My heart is physically breaking, but it’s overwhelmed with love and overwhelmed by the kindness and goodness of people,” Nancy said. “There’s a whole lot of meaning here, but the most important thing is that this community just wraps its arms around us and makes sure that we’re OK.”

Scott Burnham, who has organized all the plunges and whose wife, Pattie, proposed the idea to the Frates family, said seeing so many people turn out for the last hurrah gave him a bittersweet feeling.

“He put up an unbelievable fight, but I think his time had come,” Burnham said. “But he’s done an amazing job for ALS in general. It’s a fitting end.”

Among the 300 swimmers who ran into the ocean were Salem couple Linda and Mark Harrison, who wed during the very first plunge and have returned for every event since, reuniting with their wedding party and dressing as bride and groom. For their final celebration, they brought their 9-month-old son, Shea, to experience what for many will be their final goodbye to Pete.

“I keep choking up, the loss of a beautiful life and the birth of one, it reminds me to enjoy every day,” Mark said. “Even though there’s a lot of grief, we’re trying to celebrate because that’s what Pete wanted.”

In addition, after seven years of sitting with Pete on the sand, his wife, Julie Frates, made good on her promise to him to join in with all the others, donning the same American flag bikini she wore when she met Pete eight years ago as she ran into the water.

Fortunately for her, the water was the warmest it had ever been during any of the plunges, according to Pete’s father John Frates.

“This is a sign that we’re on the right path,” John said. “It has been a life well lived by Pete and a job well done by us, plain and simple. It’s a beautiful tribute.”