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Junior Charlie Chen puts chicken wire to the top of a structure for their class’ Minions-themed float. Associated Student Body director Steven Gallagher said he thinks float building is a great way for students to bond. “​​Everyone from every class group gets together and tries to help out and put the wall up, so it's definitely big community building,” Gallagher said. (Photo: Jonathan Chen)

With hammers pounding and saws buzzing, students at Palo Alto High School are designing floats after school in front of the science building in preparation for Friday’s after-school rally.

This year the theme for the freshmen class float is the “Lorax,” sophomores are “Stranger Things”, juniors are “Minions”, and seniors are “Alice in Wonderland.”

According to senior Gopala Vardarajan, float building is a great opportunity to meet new students.

“There’s a lot of healthy and friendly competition between the classes that help contribute to the high-quality spirit week float and rallies that we have,” Vardarajan said.

ASB Director Steven Gallagher said that bringing together different types of students from different social groups is one positive aspect of float building.

“It’s neat because you have, the designers, people who have been trying to include all kinds of different people and interests,” Gallagher said. “So yeah, you’re definitely you see a lot of groups coming together.”

Vardarajan echoed Gallagher’s sentiments by saying float building brings together the Paly community, 

“I’ve gotten to know a lot more people that I normally wouldn’t be around at school—I think that’s what float building is all about,” Vardarajan said. 

Gallagher said this year’s float building is more organized than last year—the first year after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As of yesterday, we were ahead from where we were last year,” Gallagher said. “And I think that’s just because last year was the first time we did it outside, and just learning a lot of different things to make the process a little bit more organized and easier to build.”

According to ASB senior class president Ashely Hung, progress on the floats is going well this year.

“We’re on top of our schedule,” Hung said. “This year, we’re a lot more organized than we were last year with what to cut, what we need to get up by each day, so I think it’s looking good so far.”

Parent volunteer Jessica Resmini said the independence among students in designing floats is exciting to watch.

“It’s one of the few places where kids get to really drive the project and the vision,” Resmini said. “[They] see that their labor really come to life rather than sort of the direct instruction that happened.”

Float building will take place Wednesday and Thursday after school until 7 p.m. and will be showcased at 2:40 p.m. during Friday’s rally at the football field.