How to make a static box display message on collision

So I have a box object that when the character controller collides with I want to display a message above it. After doing some research I have found that it seems like typically only the object in motion can do the collision detection. Is there any way around this? or can I detect the collision with the CC and then call a function to change (read make appear) the text on my GUI text object?

With a character controller, you can detect the collision with with OnControllerColliderHit(), and yes that callback has to be on a script on the character controller. You can communicate that hit to the other object by getting a component on that object or by sending that object a message to that object. Something like:

function OnControllerColliderHit (hit : ControllerColliderHit) {
     var myScript : MyScript = hit.collider.GetComponent(MyScript);
     myScript.doDisplay = true;
}

Info on accessing other game objects:

http://unitygems.com/script-interaction-tutorial-getcomponent-unityscript/

http://docs.unity3d.com/412/Documentation/ScriptReference/index.Accessing_Other_Game_Objects.html