By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Volunteers are getting ready for a fundraising walk that promises to create a spectacular sight for spectators. The “Light the Night” walk is next Saturday on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Preparation for the walk, which benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, is labor-intensive.

Each participant carries an illuminated balloon in one of three colors – white for survivors, gold for the families of victims and red for supporters – so the lights, 4,000 of them, have to be pre-loaded with battery packs. That’s what employees of walk sponsor FMC were doing one recent afternoon.

President Pierre Brondeau says when the company started sponsoring Light the Night, employees began sharing stories about loved ones with blood cancers, revealing the terrible reach of the disease.

“Unless you have been touched, you don’t realize how bad it is and it can be devastating,” Brondeau says.

The walk starts at Eakins Oval at 6:30 p.m. next Saturday. For more information visit www.lightthenight.org/epa.