A fraternity unrecognized by the University raised the second highest amount of money of any organization that participated in Saturday’s annual Fannie Mae Help the Homeless Walkathon.

About 50 Alpha Pi Epsilon (APES) brothers participated in Saturday’s fundraiser, collecting money from friends and family to “support beneficiary organizations that provide long-term solutions to homelessness in the Washington metropolitan area,” according to the Fannie Mae organization.

“We’re walking to raise money but also to raise awareness,” philanthropy co-chair Jason Pawlosky said. “Most homeless in D.C. aren’t street homeless, the people you see. Lots of homeless have families and jobs.”

“Thousands of people saw that we were the number-two team, and that’s pretty gratifying,” said Lee Burnstein, the other philanthropy co-chair.

APES raised $1,773 for the event, and one of the fraternity brothers, senior Daniel Bellehsen, was the fifth-highest earner in the whole event. Pawlowsky emphasized the importance of high attendance for a successful fundraiser.

“We had a high percentage of fraternity participation,” Pawlowsky said. “Even though we were up at 7:30, we still had about 50 brothers come out, about 95 percent of the active brothers who were in town.”

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty personally thanked the APES brothers for their contribution.

“It’s awesome that we met the mayor and got a personal thanks from him,” Pawlowsky said.

Pawlowsky stressed the importance of philanthropy events for building a community within the fraternity.

“It’s great to get together with all the brothers for a philanthropy event once a semester,” he said. “APES has a really close-knit community of brothers – I talk with everyone. We all hang out. Doors are always open. That’s what I think a fraternity should be about and what I get out of APES.”

Pawlowsky shrugged off the implications of APES’ reputation on campus and with GW officials.

“I’m not embarrassed about it,” he said. “We had a great philanthropy event.