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Junior Ryan Lee moves a wooden beam on Tuesday for the Class of '23's Spirit Week float outside the Palo Alto High School science building. Students and volunteers have been working together to craft their floats after school. According to Associated Student Body Coordinator Steven Gallagher, float building has received lots of support. "There's been a huge amount of time put into this by students, staff, and parents just to make this [float building] happen," Gallagher said. "I'm just grateful for all the time people have dedicated towards us." (Photo: Jonathan Chen)

Students at Palo Alto High School are building floats every day this week after school during Spirit Week in front of the science building. 

Float building will be open from 3:50 p.m. to 7:15 p.m on Monday through Thursday this week in the area across from the Peery Center.

Each class has its own theme, with the freshman theme as “Construction,” the sophomore theme as “Red Carpet,” the junior theme as “Yellow Submarine” and the senior theme as “Jumanji/Jungle.”  

Associated Student Body Senior Class President Mathew Signorello-Katz said he believes that Spirit Week and float building is an essential Paly event. 

“It’s truly one of Paly’s biggest events of the year, if not the biggest,” Signorello-Katz said. “Just to be able to have that opportunity again is just wonderful, especially with things like the rallies this year.”

According to junior Sawyer Mickelsen, he finds float building during Spirit Week fun and valuable experience. 

“For the float building aspect, I’m definitely most excited about the building,” Mickelsen said. “I think it’s more fun to build [the floats] than actually look at the final product.”

According to ASB, the class that creates the best float will be awarded 4,000 points for spirit week, the highest amount of points that can be earned for a single event. 

ASB spirit commissioner Evie Kramer said being able to engage in fun activities such as float building and celebrating Spirit Week in-person after a year of online learning will be a great experience. 

“Everybody’s super hyped and excited to be back,” Kramer said. “I think everybody’s looking forward to dressing up and being together again and feeling the community really respond because it’s [quarantine] definitely been isolating. I’m excited to get a sense of connection with this wonderful community again.”

Spirit Week started on Monday and will last until Friday. Float building will end on Thursday. More details about Spirit Week can be found on the ASB website.