SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — Seven years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, those who gathered yesterday at a ceremony in rural western Pennsylvania to recall the events of that day said they worried that memories are fading and that young children have no connection to the historic day.

Nearly every speaker noted how elementary school children have little or no memory of how ordinary people prevented a hijacked plane from reaching its reputed target: Washington, D.C.

“9/11 has become a part of history,” Gordon Felt, whose brother was a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93, said. “9/11 of our young children is our Gettysburg, our Pearl Harbor.”

Families of the 40 passengers and crew joined dignitaries under cloudy skies and in a whipping wind near the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 for a memorial ceremony. While the focus was on honoring those on board and preserving their story for future generations — the names of the victims were read aloud, two bells tolling for each — there was also an eye toward the future.

From Governor Rendell to the Republican presidential candidate, Senator McCain, the speakers emphasized the need to build a permanent memorial in the isolated reclaimed minefield where the Boeing 757 slammed into the ground.

With memories of the actual events of the day fading even for those who lived through it, the focus is largely turning to construction of memorials in Washington — which opened one on Wednesday — New York City, and here in Shanksville.

Gordon Felt’s brother Edward was a passenger on Flight 93 who called 911 from an airplane bathroom and told dispatchers the aircraft had been hijacked. Mr. Felt talked about being numb when he realized upon entering an elementary school recently that the children there had no memory of September 11, 2001.

He urged adults to find ways to help young people know how important Flight 93 is by “remembering the heroes and their actions.”

Active on the committee working to construct the permanent memorial in Shanksville, Mr. Felt talked about the urgency of the project, which has fallen far short of its fund-raising goals and has been wracked by controversy.

A few relatives of those who were on the plane say the crescent shapes in parts of the planned $58 million memorial and park pay tribute to the hijackers, who were Muslim. A crescent is a Muslim symbol.

None of those issues were addressed directly, though Mr. Felt made a point of saying that the team had a “magnificent design” and was on its way to having a “permanent and lasting tribute to 40 unique people.”

Kenneth Wainstein, the homeland security adviser to President Bush, said he was humbled by the actions of those on board the plane.

“Forty ordinary people decided to do the extraordinary, that they would give their lives so others could live,” Mr. Wainstein said. “It’s for all of us here today to carry that flame going forward and keep it burning brightly.”

Flight 93, en route to San Francisco from Newark, N.J., was the fourth aircraft that crashed on September 11. The passengers and crew on board knew from family and friends on the ground that three other jets had slammed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.

Investigators believe those on the aircraft voted on a plan, rushed the cockpit, and forced the hijackers to crash into the field, preventing them from reaching their initial target, believed to be in Washington.

Mr. McCain talked about their heroism.

The passengers and crew “understood the threat and decided to fight back at the cost of their lives,” he said.

Mr. McCain said the only love greater than the love of the passengers is the love of God. “I’m in awe of it as much as I am in debt to it,” he said.

Mr. Rendell said the annual gathering at the crash site was not only a tribute to the victims but also “a reminder to the next generation who didn’t live through that fateful day.”

A permanent memorial must convey to young children the emotions of the day, the confusion of the passengers and the fear they must have felt when they made the decision to sacrifice their lives, he said.

“It has to be in a living memorial,” Mr. Rendell said. “We will create such a memorial and that will be a great day for the national and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and all the people in the world who honor freedom and liberty.”