Queens Girl Scout, inspired by moms troubles, nabs highest NYC award for helping hearing impaired

Spider-Man isn’t the only superhero from Queens.

A Kew Gardens teen has been honored with the New York City Girl Scout’s highest award for her work bringing the movie theater experience to the hearing-impaired community — a barrier she realized her own mother was facing during a family outing to watch one of the comic book web-slinger’s flims.

Sarah Lin, 17, the winner of the scouts’ Future Woman of Distinction award, recalled her mom hanging back on a 2021 trip to see “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in a theater because her hearing loss was making it impossible for her to follow along.

“I was able to see firsthand how challenging it was for her to access things that many of us take for granted, like going to the movies,” explained Lin, who joined the Girl Scouts back in kindergarten.

“Seeing her struggle really opened up my eyes to the broader issue of accessibility and entertainment . . . Going out to watch a film should be a fun and inclusive experience, but for the deaf and hard of hearing, it comes with a lot of barriers and frustrations.”

The heart-wrenching experience inspired Lin to establish Theaters Unsilenced, a project that works in partnership with theaters across Queens to expand access to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community by providing open-captioned screenings, subtitle glasses and sound-amplifying devices — resources theaters have access to, but often neglect.

She also raised money through annual Girl Scout cookie sales to buy dry erase messaging boards, which she then doled out to cinemas across the borough.

Additionally, Lin successfully organized several free captioned movie nights for students of a deaf school and a senior living facility at Cinemart Cinemas in Forest Hills — the very same theater her mom had previously given up on visiting.

“It was just so exciting to see everyone being able to watch a movie together and have that bonding experience and having that accessible experience. I was able to watch it with my mom and my family, and that was just amazing for me. It felt like all that work paid off,” Lin, a senior at Bronx High School of Science, said.

Theaters Unsilenced helped Lin earn her Gold Award, the final accolade a Girl Scout can achieve after years of earning patches and pins — and entered her into contention for the coveted Future Woman of Distinction honor.

Lin beat out five other finalists from across New York City — and was “shocked” to find out she had been chosen for this year’s award.

“It’s just a tremendous honor and it just felt like all of the values and the lessons and the service projects that I’ve been a part of since I joined Girl Scouts 13 years ago was all put together,” Lin, of Kew Gardens, said.

The impressive feat does not mark Lin’s first foray into accessibility expansion for the hearing-impaired community.

During the pandemic, she and her sisters, Katie and Julia, spearheaded Deaf and Hard of Hearing Friendly, a project that provided face masks with a clear vinyl covering so that community members could continue to communicate via lip-reading while staying safe from the coronavirus.

Lin hopes to continue both projects in the coming years, even as she ventures into her next chapter — the Co-President of the Pre-Medical Society at Bronx High School of Science hopes to study medicine in college next year.

“I just want to help people and help close that accessibility gap that we see in healthcare,” Lin said.

“Girl Scouts really inspired me, not just for this project, but for pursuing a career in medicine in general, because one of my first exposures to the medical field was the first aid badge that I did in Girl Scouts. And I think it all connects.”