The Lukac Clan: Family unity that enriches the Park City community

The Lukac family in 2001. Photo: Neighbors of Park City

PARK CITY, Utah. — To say the Lukacs are family-oriented is an understatement. All seven of Sherri and Karchi Lukac’s adult children showed up for our 10 am. Saturday interview at the Red House. Sherri, Karchi, and their daughters Nicole and Sandra were in person for the conversation. Yet, no amount of distance or time variation prevented their other five children from joining the discussion.

As the Lukacs appeared on the large projector screen, set up especially for the Zoom session, there was an outpour of radiant warmth and delight. Nicole and Sandra welcomed their siblings and nephews with exclamations of joy in an eloquent combination of Spanish and English. In the first five minutes, it was evident that the Lukac family truly does abide by their mission statement. “Lukac clan members are driven to realize their maximum personal potential while actively contributing and supporting first and foremost fellow Lukac members as well as the rest of society.”

The family story begins on an airplane where Karchi and Sherri met. Sherri was working as a flight attendant for American Airlines. She beamed as she retold their tale of love at first sight. “A year later, we were married. He said, ‘Marry me and move to Mexico,’ and I said, ‘Marry me and fly free.’”

When they married, Karchi had two children, Stephan and Carolina, and Sherri had one child, Christopher. Sherri and two-year-old Christopher moved to Mexico City without speaking a word of Spanish to begin their life as the Lukac family. On Karchi and Sherri’s first anniversary, Nicole was born, quickly followed by her siblings Nicolas, Sandra, and Stephanie. “We had baby after baby after baby, until we finally got a TV,” Sherri laughed as she recalled the early years of their marriage. “At one point, we had four children under the age of five.”

Park City is a 28-year annual Christmas tradition for the Lukac family. Nicole, Nicolas, Sandra, and Stephanie were born into the ritual. Karchi explained how the family created their Park City holiday home. “We were skiing here and decided to purchase two weeks at the Marriott Summit Watch. Since we are Christmas-oriented, we bought a fixed week on Christmas and New Year’s… and have been coming ever since.”

“We would come to Park City and say we are home,” Sherri described. “The people here are very welcoming.” The magical holiday memories laid the foundation for Park City to become home base. Karchi and Sherri decided to purchase a home just above Main Street in 2014.

“Park City is not just a destination. It is a home for all the Lukacs. It is a place to live and enjoy,” Karchi added. “This is a young, vibrant city.” So, in March of 2020, after decades of life in Mexico City, Karchi and Sherri moved to Park City full time. The home, endearingly referred to as the “Red House,” is a few steps away from Main Street.

The Christmas traditions in Park City helped to create the foundation for the Lukac core values. Nicole, who flew from New Jersey to spend a long weekend at the Red House, exuded joy as she reflected on their family customs. “Christmas Eve for us is particularly important,” she said. “Every Christmas Eve, we never go anywhere, but we always dress up… in formal attire… for a picture in front of the tree. We have a whole family meal that goes back to our Hungarian meal from my father’s side. … All the Lukacs around the world celebrate Christmas with the same meal.”

“It is the same meal my family has had since 1924/1925,” Karchi said. “The 100-year-old Christmas Eve tradition from the old family farm.” The spread consists of a Hungarian soup with sauerkraut, a white fish, potato salad, and a chestnut puree. The meal connected the family this past year when it was not possible to physically be together. “During COVID, when they couldn’t come to visit, they all had their soup at home,” Sherri mentioned.

The Lukac children joining the conversation on Zoom were eager to share their memories and perspectives of how family time in Park City shaped their lives and brings them closer together. Stephanie, the youngest, joined in from a bar patio in Amsterdam. She talked over the Saturday night chatter to reminisce. “The biggest thing for me is spending quality time with everyone and being so close to Main Street. The biggest memory I have is going to the chocolate factory … then skiing and getting into the jacuzzi. … There is something very family-oriented when I think of Park City.”

Stephan, the oldest, joined Zoom from his home in Vancouver, Canada. “We are from a variety of different locations, and it’s nice to have that home base that brings everybody together,” he said. “The other element is the rich history of Park City… the mining town component. … An area that is so rich in history helps to bring us together as well.”

Carolina attended the Zoom conversation from Vermont with her beaming son, Nico. “I remember there was talk once of changing from the Marriott to another place, and the kids revolted. We said ‘no,’ we want to be able to walk to Main Street. Ever since everyone was young, it was going to the chocolate factory, and now we go to the bars. It was the walk we do every day. I am the only one who is not a skier, so for me, the town has always been the attraction and the pull.”

Despite having an unwell 8-month-old son, Christopher briefly joined Zoom. He brought baby Peter up to the screen to say hi, and the room filled with Sandra and Nicole’s coos of, “Hello little P-man!” Before signing off to take care of Peter, Christopher described his favorite aspect of Park City: “Spending quality time with my family.”

Sandra, who lives in Salt Lake, smiled as she softly explained, “The traditions we have created are very important. … We all have this routine; we have the same experience in Park City every year. We were all growing up, so we view Park City as a place we went back to and saw a lot of growth in everybody.”

Nicolas joined the call from New York City. The family animatedly agreed when he said, “It is nice to know that, even now, most of us are only one flight away or a very small connection … because we do live everywhere.”

The Red House, true to its name, stands bold, looking over Main Street. The inside makes an impression with striking art, communal areas with inviting furniture and textiles, and a continuation of the theme color, red. “This color has been with the family in every house,” Karchi said.

After a few months of living in Park City full time, Sherri and Karchi continued to expand the town’s uniqueness by opening their home. Sherri is the founder of Red House Wellness, a bi-monthly retreat held at the Red House. Sherri’s inspiration for Red House Wellness is the four pillars of health: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

“Red House Wellness is the transformation that comes from the awareness that you always have a choice with your words, your actions, and your thoughts. … When you gain clarity of the mind, you can see different perspectives, so you are able to see possibilities and new ways to look at life. When you have peace of spirit, and you know what you stand for, you rise to your fullest potential,” she said. “When I started this venture, I received positive reinforcement, and I could not have done this without the family. My husband is my Executive Producer, and Sandra now teaches aerial and laughing yoga at Red House Wellness.”

The Lukac family invites guests at Red House Wellness to experience an intimacy that is the foundation of their family values. “When we do create the retreat, it is an incredibly supportive and caring setting,” Sandra explained. “The reason for this is because we are such an intimate family, so we wanted to recreate that for our guests. We have them stay here; we all sit and eat together. … Everyone supports each other because that is the type of environment our parents created for us. Now Sherri is creating that for her guests.”

The house is a perfect fit for the family and Red House Wellness retreats. “When I opened the Red House Wellness, I changed nothing… because it already worked for our family,” Sherri said. “It worked for the nine of us, and now we have six to eight guests.”

Red House Wellness is the avenue that Sherri and her family use to spread their love and passion to the community. It is a business and a service to bring people together and foster growth in the participants, in the same way the family supports each other.

“We could not have done this in any other city,” Karchi said. “Because Park City is very community focused … there is a relationship between the community of Park City and the community of the Lukac family.”

“There are seven children,” Nicole said. “Park City continues to be a home base. Even though we are all slowly growing up and getting our families and our own partners and creating our own traditions, family is so important to us that we keep coming back here. There is a reason we keep coming back here. … It’s been such an important part of our lives that we want to share it with our friends and our partners and our families. … Granted, it started off as a winter home, but it’s transformed to so much more than that.”

“The community in terms of Dolly’s Bookstore, Rocky Mountain, Java Cow was important to us,” Sandra said. “We’ve been going there for 20 years. … Whether it is someone who works at a restaurant or the bookstore or someone who lives here… it’s everyone in conjunction who has helped us grow as a family and also helped Sherri with the business.”

“The Lukac clan is known for walking the talk,” Sherri said. Our interview is evidence. From locations across the globe, the Lukacs showed up to support each other and share stories of how Park City enriches their family.

Written by Ashley Brown on behalf of Neighbors of Park City