Erich Mische has been Spare Key's Executive Director since 2012. Prior to this leadership role he served on the Spare Key Board of Directors and Spare Key Executive Committee. Before Spare Key, Erich had a 35 year career in local, state and national government and politics. In 2020, Erich took a homemade raft down the Mississippi River from St. Paul, Minnesota to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on a two-month, 1,700 mile, 10 state journey to raise funds and awareness for Spare Key during the height of the global pandemic. He lived to write a book about it called, "Hope on the River: An Unlikely Captain's 1,700 Mile Mississippi River Journey On A Leaky Raft To Save His NonProfit" with 100% of the proceeds going to Spare Key to help expand the capacity of its www.HelpMeBounce.org platform. Mische and his wife, Mary-Helen, are the proud parents of Owen, 21 and Maisie, 19, who are both college students attending the University of St. Thomas and Marquette University respectively.