Senior staff members at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village are facing uncertainty amid overhauls to federal grant funding, but are pushing forward with plans for community events this summer.

Shaker Village Director Michael Graham said that over the past few months, plans for an herb house and cultural center have been thrown into financial turmoil. The village recently saw a $1.5 million grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities terminated, and lost out on previously allocated congressional funding with the passing of the 2025 budget. Graham said that, in the wake of these setbacks, the village will continue managing construction with what money they have so they don’t overspend. He hoped that, in the meantime, the village will regroup as a fundraising team and bring in philanthropic organizations to make up for the lack of federal grant opportunities. A $750,000 Semiquincentennial Grant from the National Park Service was still intact as of now, said Graham.

Graham, along with Head Gardener Tyler Credit and Office Manager Jamie Ribisi Braley, noted that the village has seen a surge of volunteer efforts in the past few months, which they credited to people searching for places of meaning, where they could make a difference in uncertain times. In addition to volunteer work and monetary donations, the Shakers have been receiving a considerable donations for their upcoming barn sale, enough to fill an entire barn.

Despite fiscal uncertainty and a disrupted summer tourism season, the Sabbathday Lake staff still has a full summer worth of events planned for travelers and community members to enjoy. On Saturday, June 14, they will host a barn sale, in which they will sell donated items to fund repairs to the barn. The event will include music, food vendors and wagon rides.

On July 27, the village will participate in the statewide Open Farm Day, which is expected to see massive turnout. Credit plans to lead tours of the village’s garden, and Brother Arnold Hadd, one of the two surviving Shakers, will play a major role in festivities and educational events.

One of the events that the staff were most excited for was the Wabanaki Art Market on Aug. 23, a collaboration with the indigenous Wabanaki Nation. The event will host around 40 Wabanaki artists from across Maine, including basket makers, jewelry makers and woodcarvers, all working to preserve the Wabanaki peoples’ at-risk traditions. The Shaker Village staff, themselves being part of a culture with unique crafting traditions, felt a sense of kinship, and noted that, over the nearly two decades of collaboration between the groups, they have watched these cultural traditions be passed down from generation to generation.