A Touchdown for Save for the Children

Tiki Barber, Tess Blythe & Eric Mourlot/credit: Robert Gulick Even though it'd be easy for Tiki Barber to think only about football in the days leading up to the Super Bowl -- his former team, the Giants, is in the contest for the first time since 2001 -- he made time Wednesday night to attend an art auction at Christie's organized by the New York City Volunteer Council of Save the Children. Mr. Barber was in fact a leader at this event, holding the title co-chairman (his co-chairwoman, Sarah Ferguson, was not able to attend). Works for sale included a 1949 lithograph by Pablo Picasso, donated by Galerie Mourlot, and the right to create a work of art with one's DNA (obtained through a cheek swab) -- but not one work with football as a theme. The auction raised about $100,000 for Save the Children's programs to promote nutrition and literacy to children living in remote regions of the Mississippi River Delta, the Deep South, Appalachia, and Native American reservations. Mr. Barber, who these days works on camera for NBC, has a pretty full calendar for Super Bowl weekend. He'll be going to Phoenix "but just as a spectator," he said. Save the Children was founded in 1932 to aid malnourished and uneducated children during the Great Depression. --Mallory Wilson-deGrazia