More than 200 adolescent girls and 80 adults gathered last week to strengthen the bonds of friendship and sisterhood for Jewish girls, representing 50 Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing! groups from Greater Boston and including two van loads of girls from western Massachusetts.

The conference was organized by a committee of Rosh Hodesh girls and a committee of adults, with a grant from the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

Following the program, Olivia Belt, a ninth grader on the planning committee, emailed:

“I will smile when I think of Celebr8-U in the years that follow. I know that a great event had occurred partially because of my skills as an emerging leader in the Jewish community. I was surrounded by almost 200 girls. All of us different, yet, we had a common goal; to demonstrate that girls are more then someone just “sitting pretty” but equal intellectuals. The biggest take away that I got from helping to plan and being at the conference is that if I want to see change happen, then I physically and verbally have to make others aware, instead of waiting for that change to happen.”