DAVAO CITY (PIA) – City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio led the storytelling for Davao school children at the SM City Davao Entertainment Center in time for the National Children's Book Day celebration held on July 20, 2010.

The mayor who came with her daughter Sharky took time out of her busy schedule of reading a story to children coming from eight public elementary schools.

She read the story entitled "Emang Engkantada at ang Tatlong Haragan" is about how kids could also help protect the environment. The storytelling was accompanied by live performance adopted from the story portrayed by selected school children depicting a healthy environment and later destroyed by people.

In her brief message, Mayor Sara said she is pursuing her advocacy on school children learning not only to read but of reading and comprehension.

"It is important that at a young age, kids already know how to read with comprehension because I would like to share with them my experience that at age three, I already know how to read and I want them to be taught early," she said.

She said part of her advocacy is for the teachers in the preschool under the supervision of the city government to undergo seminar on how to teach reading to the kids.

She said considering that the Davao City School Board is under her supervision, they should make sure that education for the kids will be given focus and this will be part of her priorities.

SM Davao mall manager Lynette Lopez said the storytelling is part of SM Cares project which was done simultaneously in 34 malls nationwide. The event was held in coordination with the National Book Development Board, Vibal Publishing, Inc., Department of Education, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

She said corporate-wide SMs tenants numbered to 12,000 with 25,000 employees plus three million shoppers nationwide, they will continue to embark on projects inline with their corporate social responsibility and this includes among others activities that would encourage children to read.