Paddy Murphy Week included three days of events in which sororities competed for a $1,000 donation to their charity of choice. They were awarded points for participation and for donating — the sorority with the most points at the end of the week was awarded $1,000 for their charity.

The original plan was to send the majority of the donations to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, donate $1,000 to the winning sorority’s charity and use a small portion of the donations to purchase a brace for Berlin's foot as the surgery to remove the tumor from his leg left him with nerve damage, causing him to suffer from drop foot.

However, plans quickly changed after receiving bad news from the Berlin family.

Shortly after concluding fundraising efforts, the fraternity found out Berlin's cancer had returned. This time in his lungs. While still awarding the winning sorority $1,000, Sigma Alpha Epsilon decided the remaining funds raised during Paddy Murphy Week needed to be used to support Berlin — all $16,000 of it. 

Alex Berlin's younger brother Chandler Berlin, an active member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and former Alumni Relations Chairman, also started a CrowdRise fundraiser to help with the expenses associated with fighting cancer, including flights to various hospitals around the U.S., more advanced leg braces for his drop foot and medical expenses not covered by insurance.

As of 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 11 the campaign had raised $12,695, which brings the total funds raised for Berlin to $28,695. 

Jack Brodeur, Sigma Alpha Epsilon's Paddy Murphy Chairman, said the effort put forth during Paddy Murphy Week says a lot about the character of the brothers in his fraternity.

"We never really had our philanthropy event, but had the desire to give back," Brodeur said. 

"Cancer research and Ewing’s sarcoma has been really close to us because of Alex and I think that helped get everyone behind it to make it a good first year," Brodeur said.