Kolstad

Kathleen Bonte of Mountain View and Janet Kolstad of Los Altos will walk 39.3 miles in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer next month.

Kolstad, a local preschool teacher, mother of two and active community volunteer, will walk for the first time since her recruitment by her friend, Bonte, who is training for her second walk.

Bonte, who runs a small marketing and design company, has been committed to the cause since her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago.

In addition to individual fund raising, the women have enlisted the help of The Cupertino Tea Company, a local purveyor of tea and everything related to it. Through Friday, the company will donate 20 percent of all new sales to the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade.

“They’re an ideal sponsor,” said Bonte. “The health benefits of tea are already widely known and the owners of the company are also very committed to the cause. Many of CTC’s customers are women in their late 30s and 40s, a group at increased risk for the disease.”

The Cupertino Tea Company is located at 1160 University Drive, in downtown Menlo Park. Over 1000 varieties of tea, tea books, tea accessories and gift baskets can also be purchased on their Web site, www.cupertinoteacompany.com.

To trigger the donation, customers must mention the charity or type “Avon Walk” in the coupon code box when ordering online.

To sponsor the two women directly, go to www.avonwalk.org, click on “Donate” and follow the prompts to the women’s Web pages.

The women agree - the toughest part of doing one of these walks isn’t really the walking - it’s the fund raising.

“We sure hope people drink a lot of tea,” Bonte said.

Avon Walk For Breast Cancer is slated for July 9-10. For more information, visit www.avonwalk.org.