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Mel Evans/AP Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses around 3,000 summer camp and out of school time professionals at the American Camp Association and Tri State CAMP conference Thursday, March 19, 2015, in Atlantic City, N.J. Clinton said the nation's political class could use "camps for adults" and too many leaders get backed into partisan corners and won't work together.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. Hillary Rodham Clinton, edging closer to an expected presidential run, came to this down-at-the-heels gambling mecca Thursday to deliver a nostalgic and cheerful address on family, the outdoors and schoolyard fights.

The audience: thousands of professional camp counselors, whose trade group spent an estimated $200,000 to hear from the frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic nomination.

The speech to a regional gathering of the American Camp Association was the last paid appearance on Clintons public calendar, and probably the last she will give before her campaign begins.

Clinton wistfully recalled her late mother and raising her daughter, Chelsea, and cast herself as an approachable person who understood the lives of the counselors in the crowd. She also talked up her love of nature I love the outdoors and her own middle-class upbringing, where she said her mother, Dorothy Rodham, would encourage her to defend herself in schoolyard fights.

No room for cowards in this house, Clinton said of her mothers message to her.

Clinton also playfully referred to the political storm that has engulfed her outside the cavernous ballroom at the Atlantic City Convention Center, as she responds to criticism of her use of a private e-mail server while secretary of state.

Referring to Chelseas time at camp decades ago as the worst week, Clinton paused and added, Well, I have had a few bad weeks to chuckles from the audience.

The appearance gave Clinton one last chance to revel in a nonpolitical, mostly adoring crowd. The many youthful attendees were dressed casually in the uniform of counselors: jeans, sneakers and hooded sweatshirts.

Still, with Clintons candidacy on the horizon, the price of Clintons speech caused chatter in the halls. Several counselors wondered if their group had paid Clintons usual fee of $200,000 or more, which would represent about 10 percent of the groups annual budget.

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Hillary Clinton gives likely last paid speech before a 2016 presidential run