Islanders fans pay for banner plane to send positive message to team

The New York Islanders are feeling the love from above.

Islanders supporters paid for a banner plane to display the message "Let's go Islanders" as the team prepares for its Eastern Conference Second Round series against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Matthew Kammerer, an Islanders fan and usher at Nassau Coliseum from East Meadow, New York, arranged a GoFundMe page, and 186 donors helped him raise more than $4,500 - more than $1,000 more than the price to for the plane -- to sail over Toronto on Saturday afternoon.
"It just kind of went crazy," Kammerer told NHL.com. "In 24 hours, we were well past the $3,500 and I shut it off at like $4,580 or something like that. It was amazing really, how quickly things can work in the modern world when you have an idea, and people like it, it goes nuts."

Kammerer developed the idea while discussing ways to send support to the Islanders while they play in Toronto, the Eastern Hub, after they built a 3-1 lead in their Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Washington Capitals. He started the GoFundMe for the banner plane, in an homage to the planes that fly overhead at Long Island beaches.
"Everything is social media," Kammerer said, "and technology is wonderful, but maybe it would be nice if the boys could look up in the sky and see something instead of looking at their devices."
The banner flew over Toronto for an hour, including a trip over the Islanders team hotel, the Fairmount Royal York.
Members of the team saw the message, and it gave the players the desired lift, including defenseman Scott Mayfield who shared his appreciation on Twitter.
Tweet from @scottmayfield2: Thanks for the love #isles fans!!!! pic.twitter.com/jBZPWkq0ep
Seeing Mayfield's tweet, and a video the team shared on Twitter later Saturday, made it worth the effort to Kammerer.
"It felt tremendous," Kammerer said. "It kind of showed that the fan base is there and engaged and willing to support something like this, and my intention was… that the players have something to physically see to pump them up and maybe we could pretend we made a little difference."