Former Kodiaks coach to start sports initiative after receiving special painting

By Lethbridge Herald on September 8, 2022.

Herald photo by JUSTIN SEWARD Bertil and Julie Johansson are using a combination of a family connection and a painting to help kick start a sports community initiative.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

It was thanks to an ancestral connection that a painting was done of  long-time Lethbridge College Kodiaks’ cross country coach Bertil Johansson’s last running shoe before he retired that sparked an idea to help local athletes.

Bertil’s wife, Julie, did an Ancestry DNA test after visiting her old roommate Shari Stone in Utah and her recommendation of doing the test.

“I didn’t really want to do one because to me it was like iCloud, your DNA, somebody is going to get it. It was a little suspicious and concerning,” said Julie.

“But then she’s like, no you have to do it. So Bertil and I did it. But I did say to her, if something comes out of mine then you’re going to have to follow with me for the rest of my life and she just laughed and said sure I will.”

The test happened in July 2019 and it was in August that Julie saw the results and realized she had two cousins that she had never met.

Julie eventually  went to Montreal and stayed with a cousin who had mentioned that they shared a famous painter cousin in Yves Joseph Nolet from Quebec.

“Then I came home and I started to email Yves, but I never got a response because what happens sometimes is when you do the initial steps they think it’s a fraud,” said Julie.

“They think we don’t know you and so they are very suspicious. But anyway after a while I kept writing and his wife, Lee, basically said you need to write to this girl and so he did and then we were in contact (with) each other and it’s been an awesome relationship since then.”

Julie bought a painting off of Nolet.

“So it was about a bird or I think it was a bird — something to that effect,” said Julie.

“So I bought that one and then I told him I was writing a book about my ancestry and what has happened to me and then I said,  ‘Can you paint my portrait so I can put it in my book?’ He said, ‘I will do that.’ And he did that.”

It was a couple of months ago that Julie and Nolet had talked about track and Bertil.

“He got to know Bertil and then one day he said,  ‘Just send me his shoe and I’ll do something special with it,’” she said.

The Brooks brand shoe was Bertil’s retirement shoe that he wore between 2016-2018 for events such as the Run for the Pumpkin cross-country event, Kodiak cross country, Kodiak 10/4 Race Relay, indoor track and Lethbridge College PE instructor classes.

“We just thought it was a wonderful thing to have that done and how much meaning that was in that painting for Bertil and how much that represented all of what he had done and what he is still doing,” said Julie.

The painting  is where the idea stemmed to help out the sporting community.

“If there was anyone in the community that was highly successful and has a shoe, what they could do is probably ask my cousin to do a painting such as that,” said Julie.

“It’s a kind of a call out to the community of those that have been very successful … the person would pay for the painting and then (they)would donate it, it would be signed to whoever the athlete or the coach got that done.  And they would in turn give it for a fundraiser and raise money so that the athletes have some funds so that they can go on trips and do whatever it is that they do.”

“I didn’t really know what it was going to tie into,” said Bertil.

“He also talked about what’s my best hockey player. I said Guy Lafleur from Montreal. So I thought it was going to be running and some other sports stuff around. If you look at the nature there, it almost look like a fall season, cross country season. So maybe he was depicting like some type of cross-country season with a cross country shoe. Yeah, I was very impressed. I had sent him an old shoe, and the way he was able to gloss it, you know shine it up like that, I was quite impressed.”

Bartil started coaching at Lethbridge College in 1987 and went until 2018.

His accolades include eight women’s Canadian College Athletic Association medals, 10 men’s CCAA medals, seven CCAA team golds between men and women and six men CCAA team medals.

More details can be found through contacting the Johansson’s at either (403) 382-7801 or (403) 382-7925 and by email at bertilj@telus.net or juliejohansson79@hotmail.com.

The final product options can viewed at http://www.yvesjosephnolet.com.

Nolet  is an award-winning artists who has done work on the Pope, United Against Drugs, Color Festivals and Ancestry.

He has won honorary awards, been in various publications, his work is a part of a collection at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, been a part of tribute and honorary ceremonies and has distinctions and collections.