Courtesy
Felicia Parker, founder of Any Occasions Baskets, an online gift shop, celebrates the company’s selection as winner of the inaugural Small Business Showcase.
Thursday, July 15, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Felicia Parker would make gift baskets for her mother, a real estate agent, to give to clients.
The baskets were so well-received, it wasn’t long before Parker decided to turn her basket-making skills into a business, Any Occasion Baskets.
That was about six years ago.
Tuesday night at Allegiant Stadium, Any Occasion Baskets was recognized as the winner of a small-business contest cosponsored by the Las Vegas Raiders and America First Credit Union.
As winner of the contest — there were seven finalists among a pool of 160 applicants — Parker will get a single-season Raiders sponsorship package worth $100,000, including signage inside Allegiant Stadium, radio ads and placement on the team’s website and mobile application.
Parker was posting a photo of one of the company’s finished baskets onto Instagram in March when she spotted a notice on her feed announcing the contest for businesses from Nevada or Utah with annual revenues of less than $10 million.
“I thought I should apply for it,” Parker said. “I just said, ‘Lord, let me win, please.’ ... I don’t know the odds I gave myself. I was just praying I would win.”
Entrants were required to submit business-related documents for the contest. After finalists were vetted, they met online with executives from the Raiders and America First.
In a statement, Raiders president Marc Badain said the team was proud to support local entrepreneurs.
“The Small Business Showcase provides local companies like this year’s deserving winner an important opportunity to succeed in achieving their goals,” Badain said.
Any Occasion Baskets has three employees and offers gift baskets for any occasions a customer can dream up, from baby showers to birthdays to “just because,” according to its website. Baskets and gift packages start at around $30 and can go up to several hundred dollars.
The business, Parker said, has prepared baskets that feature anything from a BBQ starter kit to meats and cheeses and even baby diapers. Parker said she once delivered a gag gift basket with adult diapers.
She said she wanted the business to offer gifts different from just the traditional bouquet of flowers or bottle of wine.
Parker says she’s grateful to have won the contest and hopes to keep giving back to the Las Vegas community as her business continues to grow.
“It was nerve-wracking, but so exciting to be able to go from round to round,” Parker said. “My father is a life-long Raiders fan, so he was so excited. I think he was kind of in shock.”
Parker’s mother, Jacquelyn Brown, was also visibly excited when Any Occasion Baskets was announced as the winner during Tuesday’s event, which was inside the Shift4 Club area at Allegiant Stadium.
“This is so awesome to see. I remember when it was announced that the Raiders were moving to Las Vegas, we talked about how nice it would be to have her baskets inside the stadium,” said Brown, whose family moved to Las Vegas from Southern California when Parker was young.
Parker said winning the contest would help give the business a “level of exposure” that it hasn’t had to date.
“This blows the box off what we had times a million,” Parker said. “We’re going to get in front of so many different people. It’s going to help our business a lot.”
The Las Vegas Raiders and America First Credit Union combined forces on the inaugural Small Business Showcase, a competition that culminated Tuesday, July 13, 2021, at Allegiant Stadium with the awarding of sponsorship assets valued at $100,000 to the winning business. From left are Raiders president Marc Badain; Christian Howard, vice president of corporate partnerships for the Raiders; Thayne Shaffer, America First Credit Union president/CEO; Felicia Parker, Any Occasion Baskets founder and Small Business Showcase winner; and Lincoln Kennedy, Raiders’ alumnus and small-business owner.
Lincoln Kennedy, a former lineman for the Raiders who emceed the event and also owns small businesses, said the prize package will do wonders in the way of branding.
“Just imagine being up on a billboard at Allegiant Stadium at a Raiders game when you get to see your marketing, your product showcased; that’s big time. That’s big news,” he said.
Parker said Any Occasion Baskets, like many small businesses, struggled during the early days of the pandemic.
“I took the time to pray about it and figure out what we wanted to do. I didn’t want to close down,”Parker said.
To stay open, she said the company turned to making baskets for frontline health workers.
“I decided that we were going to give back,” Parker said. “We were going to serve and honor God. I’m a Christian and that’s what I believe. We had product with no business coming in, and we decided to give back.”
Now that the pandemic has lessened and people have largely returned to work, Parker’s business is making baskets again. Now, Any Occasion Baskets has the added benefit of the $100,000 package from the Raiders to help.
To other small-business owners facing hardships, Parker offered simple advice.
“Don’t listen to the naysayers and don’t listen to the doubts that can creep in your own head,” she said. “There can be some really wonderful things on the other side.”
