Students from all classes at Palo Alto High School are working feverishly on building floats that will be presented at the Friday rally at the end of Spirit Week.
Students kick-started the process of float building last Friday, after school. The work is expected to continue throughout this week after school. This year’s Spirit Week class themes are “Monopoly and Money” for seniors, “Wizard of Oz” for juniors, “Firefighter” for sophomores, and “Finding Nemo” for freshmen.
According to Associated Student Body senior president Kennedy Do, the process of collaboration through building the floats strengthens the community.
“It [float building] is a great way to foster inclusivity within our senior class and also just within the Paly community,” Do said. “It’s also a great way to kick off Spirit Week.”
Do said she and her fellow seniors have an excellent theme for float building this year.
“Our theme this year is ‘Monopoly and Money,’” Do said. “One side is going to be the Monopoly board game. We are integrating a lot of aspects related to Paly in our monopoly design, such as cards that have Paly buildings. The other side is just a bank.”
The freshmen class’s float building circles around the movie “Finding Nemo.” According to freshman Addie Johnson, the floats are going to involve images and characters from the classic Pixar movie.
“On [one] side, it’s like the dentist office [from ‘Finding Nemo’],” Johnson said. “So we have the window, and we’re drawing the Pelican Nigel, and we have a dentist chair. On the other side, that’s the ocean. We have sea turtles, jellyfish, and Octopi.”
Johnson described what she is looking forward to for her first time participating in float building.
“I’m really looking forward to the game and showing it [float building] off and seeing it all done,” Johnson said. “I’m going to be on the float, playing Darla from ‘Finding Nemo.’”
The sophomores this year decided to make a change from the traditional design of a front and back float to a 3D fire truck. Students can stand inside the fire truck instead of standing in front of the float.
Sophomore Ashlyn Zeeman expressed her excitement for the sophomore class building.
“It [float building] seems really cool,” Zeeman said. “There’s a lot of people putting effort into it.”
According to junior Julian Rabbit-Tomita, his experience with float building was a positive one.
“It was a cool community event I could do with my friends,” Rabbit-Tomita said. “I’m looking forward to making a cool float building with my friends.”
Senior Briar Dorogusker said that her interest in float building sparked when she was in middle school.
“When I was in middle school, I came [during a Spirit Week rally] and saw my sister’s float,” Dorogusker said. “I knew that I really wanted to help to build it. So in freshman year, I came and then ever since then I’ve been coming every year to help build and help design.”
Do is looking forward to seeing more seniors to come help with the float building this week.
“It’s our [seniors’] last year together as a class working on our floats, and it’s our last Spirit Week,” Do said. “I hope that everybody will come and participate so we can end off this year with a bang.”