Two weeks ago, members of the Extreme Makeover Home Edition team spent three hours at Project Walk in Carlsbad, videotaping the equipment that is used to help people walk again after suffering devastating spinal cord injuries.

The reason: Extreme Makeover is more than tripling the size of the 900-square-foot house where a Los Angeles police officer lives, and they will be putting in the same equipmentshe used at Project Walk after she was shot and paralyzed. (The program will air early in December.)

After opening in Sorrento Valley in 1999, Project Walk moved to 2738 Loker Ave. in Carlsbad in 2002, and it has become what you might call a place for miracles. And, hard work.

Ted Dardzinski, an exercise specialist who has a bachelor's degree in physical education from Trenton State College in New Jersey, founded Project Walk with his wife, Tammy, a certified personal trainer. Ted calls what they do for their clients activity-based recovery.

Ted and his staff of physical therapists help patients exercise their paralyzed limbs to regenerate nerve tissue and muscle, a practice that is not common in hospitals or nursing homes.

Hundreds of patients have been coming to Project Walk at its headquarters in Carlsbad and to its second facility in Portland, Oregon, from across the U.S. and from around the world, including Australia, Japan, England and Spain, to work at getting a new chance in life using The Dardzinski Method.

Some stay a week, others a month, before going home to continue with their exercises -- their homework. But, they return again and again, because the treatment is a life-long process.

Ted, who pointed out that there are 11,000 spinal cord injuries a year in our country alone, said that people who have been in wheelchairs for years are now standing or taking a step or two, but that the clients who come to Project Walk right after being released from the hospital have the most success.

Our community will have a chance to witness people with spinal cord injuries taking their first steps or walking their first half-mile down Loker Avenue.

People who have been in car accidents. People who have sports injuries. People like the man who fell out of a hammock and broke his neck. People who have been told there was little hope -- or none at all, that they would ever walk again.

You'll be able to see the happy and smiling faces on Friday, Nov. 10, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., when Project Walk holds its second annual fundraiser and celebration, 2006 Steps to Recovery.

Following the walk, there will be a video presentation about Project Walk, as well as an auction. Food and beverages will be available, and money raised will be used to help needy clients, since recovery expenses are not covered by health insurance.

Tax-deductible donations, with checks payable to NTAF -- Project Walk Carlsbad Scholarship Fund, may be sent to Project Walk, Attention: Adrienne Wagemester, 2738 Loker Avenue, Carlsbad, CA 92010.

Volunteers and auction items are also needed. Call (760) 431-3480 or e-mail tammy@projectwalk.org

Barbara Brill, a North County Times columnist, is a free-lance writer who has lived in Carlsbad since 1971. Contact: bbrill2@juno.com.