LOS ANGELES (AP) – After 97 years, Our Lady of Lourdes School was closing – enrollment had dwindled to just 35 children last year at what was once one of the West Coast’s biggest Catholic schools.

But with a new principal who knocked on doors, offered xbox video game consoles to kids who brought in a friend, and recruited families who lost their bid in a charter school lottery, the East Los Angeles school stayed open – 132 pupils are registered for this fall.

Call it educational evangelism. Roman Catholic schools are seeing years of marketing efforts starting to pay off in spite of tough competition from charter schools and the lingering effects of a devastating recession.